








^^ U^^; 



is> '■0,0' <i>^ o^ •■ . , 1 • \0 







^,o^^ V^^'^ ^/'^f-l^.o^"^ ^^.'^?^'\V^ ^/'l^Y^'V' ^-o - • 

*-!. * « < < ' aU ^ •• . o ' <>.~ O^ '5,1' \0 i5> • . o ' <>i^ C)^ ' » , 1 • \0 









MEMORIAL OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 



MEMORIAL 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 



rilESlDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Bo 



s 10 r\ 




BOSTON: 
TICK NOR AND FIELDS 



JI D C C C L X V. 



% 



Two Hundred Cojnes Printid. 



r K I N T E D BY J . E . I' A K ^V E L L Ji C O JI P A N V , 



rONTENTS, 



Death of the Presitlcnt !• 

Proceedings of the City Council 15 

Communication of Mayor Lincoln 15 

Remarks of Alderman Messinger lf< 

Resolves I'J 

Remarks of tlic President of the Council 22 

Meetin;j; in Faneuil Hall 27 

Address of Mayor Lincoln -7 

Remarks of Hon. P. W. Cliandlcr 30 

Resolutions 3l' 

Speech of Hon. Charles G. Lorin^,' ;U 

Speech of Hon. A. H. Rice 50 

Speech of Hon. R. H. Dana, .Ir 5G 

Procession and services in Music Hall '>3 

Eulogy of Hon. Charles Sumner. »' 



DEATH OF THE PRESIDENT. 



DEATH OF THE PRESIDENT. 



As the President of the United States was sitting with his wife 
in a private box at Ford's Theatre in AVashington, on the evening 
of April 14, 1865, — happy in view of the speedy termination of 
a protracted civil war, and the fulfilment of his high purpose, — he 
received a death-wound from a pistol-shot fired by an assassm. 
He never spoke afterwards, but lingered until twenty-two minutes 
past seven o'clock, on the morning of April 15, when he died. 
The news of his death was received in this city soon after eight 
o'clock, through a despatch from the Secretary of War, and pro- 
duced feelings of sadness and alarm never before equalled. By 
order of His Honor, the ]\Iayor, the bells were immediately tolled, 
and the flags on all public buildings were displayed at half mast. 
The places of business and amusement were all closed, and the 
insignia of mourning appeared on nearly every building, public and 
private, in the city. An informal meeting was organized early in 
the day at the Merchants' Exchange, and a Committee was ap- 
pointed to prepare and send a despatch to Washington, cxpressmg 
sympathy for the family of the deceased, and giving an assurance 
of confidence and support to his constitutional successor — Andisew 
Johnson. The message was forwarded by Mayor Lincoln, with the 
following indorsement : — 



10 MEMORIAL OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 

Mayor's Office, City Hall, 
Boston, April 15, 18 Go. 

To His Excellency, Andreav Johnson, Washington. 

D. C.: — 

I luivc the honor to forward the accompanying rcsohi- 
tion, passed by the citizens of Boston npon hearing of the 
sad event Avhich has cast the Nation in gloom ; and I 
desire to unite most sincerely in theu- expression of grief, 
and in the patriotic resolve to support the constituted au- 
thorities in their eflorts to uphold the integrity of the 
Republic. 

F. W. LINCOLN, Jr., Moi/or. 



resolution of the citizens. 

The citizens of Boston, overwhelmed with grief at the 
awful calamity which has befallen our common country, 
in the tragic death of its great and good President, and in 
the deadly assault upon the wise and sagacious Secretary 
of State and members of liis family, spontaneously assem- 
bled at the Merchants' Exchange, and resolved, that an 
expression of their strong and fervent sympathy be imme- 
diately sent to the surviving members of the afflicted 
families, in view of the irreparable loss which they and 
their countrymen have sustained by this sad event ; and, 
also, that a message be sent to Andrew Johnson, the con- 
stitutional successor of Abraham Lincoln, as President of 
these United States, of their confidence in his integrity, 
his patriotism, and his manhood ; and their determination 



RESOLUTION OF THE CITIZENS. 11 

to i^ivc him tlicir undivided and unfaltering support, im- 
ploring the blessing of God to guide him with the wisdom 
and virtue which characterized his lamented predecessor. 
ALEXANDER H. lilCE, 
GEORGE B. UPTOX, 
JA:\[ES L. LITTLE, 

avery plumer, 
alpheus hardy, 

EDWARD S. TOliEY, 
PHINEAS STOWE, 

E. R. MUDGE, 

Committee. 



TKOCEEDINGS OF THE CITY COUNCIL. 



niOCEEDINGS or THE CITY COUNCIL. 



City of Boston, April 17, 18(J5. 

A SPECIAL mccling of the City Council of Boston was convened 
at twelve o'clock this day, by order of His Honor, Frederic W. 
Lincoln, Jr., ]\Iayor, for the purpose of ex[)ressing their respect to 
the memory of Abraham Lincoln, the late President of the United 
States. 

PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN. 

There were present at this meeting the Mayor and all the 
Aldermen. 

The Board having been called to order by the Mayor, he spoke 
as follows : — 

To THE Honorable the City Council: — 

Gentlemen : Abraham Lincoln, the President of the 
United States, expired at Washington on the morning of 
April 15, bet\veen the hours of seven and eight o'clock. 
The death of one so distinguished, whose eminent services 
for the last four years have been so valuable to his country, 
and whose individual opinions and actions were considered 
so vital to its future welfare, has tilled the Nation's heart 



16 MEMORIAL OF FRESIDENT LINCOLN. 

with gloom. In the midst of the jubihxnt and excited 
feelings of a grateful people, bound to him with dearer 
ties than ever before in his career, his connection with 
them has been suddenly severed by the violent hands of 
an assassin. The fresh joy of the recent glorious victories 
of our armies, securing, we trusted, peace and prosperity 
to a reunited country, has unexpectedly been turned to 
mourning. 

The shouts of an exultant people are buslied, and the 
stern discipline of sorrow is once more to test their char- 
acter and to prove their manhood. Called to the Chief 
Magistracy of the nation at a time of unexampled trial, 
when the Union of our fathers was threatened with dis- 
ruption by degenerate sons, the loyal spirit of the country 
responded time and time again to his patriotic appeals. 
His talents and his practical virtues seemed to develop and 
strengthen witli the new exigencies which called for their 
exercise ; and at the moment when success was crowning 
our efforts, the great leader was summoned away, and 
his office and his great trusts fiill upon another. 

President Lincoln's career will ever bo considered as 
one of the best illustrations of the character and nature of 
Republican institutions. He was emphatically a man of 
the people. Born in an humble condition, he was never 
tempted to rise by a sordid ambition for place ; but yet he 
was ever ready to meet public responsibilities, when the 
country demanded his services. His merits as a statesman 
and patriot have been tested in the most momentous period 
in the history of the Republic. His integrity and worth 
as a man were seldom called in question while he lived, 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE CITY COUNCIL. 17 

and now that he lias gone, his memory will be held in 
blessed remembrance by his countrymen, and especially 
by that race whose shackles of slavery were broken during 
his administration, and who will cherish his name as that 
of their great Liberator. 

He has conducted us safely through the checkered 
career of the greatest civil war known in the history of 
the Avorld ; and at the time of his decease his clear and 
honest intellect was engaged upon those great and difficult 
problems of statesmanship which, after such a conflict, 
appertain to a condition of peace. At times when disas- 
ter befell our arms, or confusion attended our councils, 
and the timid were disposed to give up in despair, his 
faith never wavered in the final success of the cause, — 
new difficulties aroused new energies, — and, relying upon 
the patriotism of the people, he moved on with a resolute 
will, in the work which Providence had placed in his 
hands for the salvation of the nation. 

The great responsibilities of his position, he bore with 
complacency and good humor. His physical frame, which 
was developed in early manhood, fitted him for the unpar- 
alleled labors of his public trust ; and his tragic death 
was caused by that fell spirit of treason and disloyalty, 
■which, had it not Iteen for his efforts, might likewise have 
been the death of the nation. 

The Republic has lost its chief officer ; — every patriot 
feels that he has lost a personal friend. We finite beings 
cannot fathom the wisdom of the great calamity. He that 
ruleth over the nations of the earth must be our abiding 
trust. To the family of the late President, our heartfelt 
sympathies and condolence should be tendered. 



18 MEMORIAL OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 

In common witli the wliole nation, this community joins 
in the general sorrow ; and in order that you may offi- 
cially take that public notice of the event ■which the 
occasion demands, I have called the members of the City 
Council together in special session. 

Your wisdom will suggest the most appropriate manner 
for the city of Boston to honor the memory of the distin- 
guished dead. 

F. W. LINCOLN, Jr., Maijor. 

At the conclusion of tlie Mayor's Address, Alderman George W. 
Messinger, Chairman of tlie Board, spoke as follows : — 

It is with no ordinary emotions, Mr. Mayor, that I rise 
to offer the resolutions pertinent to this occasion. The 
sudden shock which our entire community experienced at 
the reception of the astounding reports from Washington ; 
the mingled feelings of grief, of horror, and of indigna- 
tion, have scarcely yet subsided ; the repose and reflections 
incident to the Sabbath may have served to calm and tran- 
quillize, but only to bring forth a more realizing sense of 
tlie irreparable loss which the nation has sustained by the 
death of its Chief Magistrate. 

At the very time when the Rebellion appears subdued, 
when the days of battle are numbered and the horrors of 
war are to give way to the blessings of peace, when the 
restoration or reconstruction of our glorious Union is so 
evident, that great and good man, at the head of our 
uation, whose sound judgment and valuable counsels Avere 
so much relied on, is stricken down bv the hand of the 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE CITY COUNCIL. 19 

assassin. AVitliont further comniciit. I now submit the 
preamble and resolutions prepared by a joint committee 
of the C'it}- Council : — 

RESOLVES. 

Whereas, in the Providence of God. the shadow of a 
great grief is now resting on the people of the United 
States, in the sudden death, by the hand of violence, of 
their beloved and honored Chief Magistrate. Al)raham 
Lincoln, now officially announced to the City Coinicil by 
His Honor the Mayor, therefore. 

Resolved, 1. That in this early hour of the Nation's 
bereavement and sorrow, the greatness of our loss cannot 
be adecpiately expressed by words, but is evinced by the 
unspoken and unutterable language of the heart, and the 
tears of millions of our loyal countrymen, telling how 
truly and aifectionately he who was from the people, and 
loved the people, was loved by them. 

2. That we devoutly thank God for the noble work 
our loved and honored President was permitted to do for 
the nation, guiding it with consummate sagacity and skill 
through the most difficult epoch of its existence ; that we 
recognize especially his great wisdom and foresight in 
issuing his proclamation of Emancipation, which will en- 
title him to the gratitude of the lovers of liberty through- 
out the world in all future ages, and give him a place in 
his country's fame by the side of the innnortal Washing- 
ton. 

3. That we accord to the family of our late Cliief 



20 MEMORIAL OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 

^Magistrate our hearttclt and tender sympathy in their 
irreparahle loss, assnriiig them that we cherish as one of 
our country's priceless legacies the memory of him wliom 
the niition mourns. 

4. That the atrocious attempt to take the life of our 
Secretary of State, the Hon. "\^'illiam II. Seward, and the 
assaults on the members of his household, have excited the 
liveliest interest for his preservation ; and we trust that 
his life may long be spared, and his valuable counsels 
continue to benefit his country. 

5. That we assure President Johnson of our cordial 
support in the great task devolved upon him by this hor- 
rible crime, entreating him to believe that the nation, 
instructed by this last bitter experience, will sustain the 
Government more unitedly than ever in vigorous and 
effective measures for suppressing a wicked and unnatural 
Rebellion, in meting out justice to all its abettors, and 
securing the amplest guarantees for peace in all coming 
time ; trusting that he will not pause until every seed of 
its possible life is destroyed, and our whole country rests 
on the sure basis of full and impartial liberty. 

G. That as a proper mark of respect, Faneuil Hall and 
the City Hall be draped in mourning for the period of 
thirty days, and that on the day of the funeral ceremonies 
in Washington, His Honor the Mayor order all public 
offices, schools and places of amusement, to be closed, and 
request an entire suspension of business on the part of our 
citizens. 

7. That a delegation from the city government, con- 
sisting of His Honor Mayor Lincoln, two Aldermen, the 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE riTY COUNC IL. 21 

President and three members of the Common CounciL 
attend the obsequies of the hite President of the United 
States. 

8. That a eulogy on the character and services of 
Abraham Lincohi be pronounced before the city govern- 
ment at an early day, and that a joint committee be 
appointed to make tlie necessary arrangements. 

9. That a copy of these resokitions be sent to the 
President of the United States, the heads of the different 
departments at Washington, and the family of the deceased. 

The passage of tlie foregoing resolutions having been advocated 
by Alderman Nathaniel C. Nash, with some appropriate remarks, 
they were unanimously adopted by the Board, each member rising 
in his place. 

Tlie Chair having appointed Aldermen John S. Tyler and 
Charles F. Dana as a Committee in behalf of this Hoard to attend 
the Funeral Obsequies in Washington, and Aldermen George W. 
ilessinger, John S. Tyler, and Thomas Gaffield upon the Com- 
mittee of Arrangement for an Eulogy on the deceased, as contem- 
plated in the eighth resolve, said resolutions were sent down to the 
Common Council for concinrence, and the Board of Aldermen then 
adjourned. 

Attest : 

S. F. McCLEARY, City C/e/A. 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE COMMON COUNCIL. 

The members of the Common Council were called to order by 
their President, William B. Fowle, Esq., who addressed them as 
follows : — 



22 memorial of president lincoln. 

Gentlemen of the Common Council: — 

Were I to consult my own feelings upon this occasion, 
I should indulge in speechless sorrow ; but, as representa- 
tives of our fellow citizens, it seems proper that we should 
place upon record our estimation of the great and good 
man whose loss the nation mourns. 

Words are but feeble instruments to express deep grief; 
far better the sympathizing grasp of the hand and the eye 
glistening with the involuntary tear. 

We respected Abraham Lincohi as the chief magistrate 
of our country, and as such alone we should have felt 
sorrow at his death, but we are now in mourning for more 
than the loss of the nation's head. 

Our country needed him. The marked ability with 
whicli he had steadied the helm through the lou"- ni"ht of 
civil war, until the dayspring of peace seemed fairly open- 
ing to our vision, had taught us to look to him as the 
guiding star under whose benignant auspices all troubles 
were to cease. But deeper seated than even this is our 
grief to day. 

lie was cut off by a dastardly act in the midst of such 
usefulness as it has rarely been the lot of man to experi- 
ence. ^^'e lament the cruel manner of his death, and our 
grief deepens at the thought that for us and in our service 
he died. But even this does not suiRcicntly account for 
the gloom which rests upon us. 

Beyond the magistrate whose ability we respected, 
beyond the victim of the assassin who died for us, and 
whose untimely fate we deplore, beyond the loss of his 
services at a time when thcv were so sorely needed, we 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE CITY COUNCIL. 23 

each and all of us have lost a dear friend ; a <^rcat, good, 
honest, noble-hearted friend, whom we all loved. Our love 
for him is the great cause of our heartfelt grief. 

Upon our nation's roll of honor, side by side with that 
of the immortal Washington, let us place the name of 
Abraham Lincoln, and let us pray to the Supreme lluler, 
that the exigencies of our country may nevermore need 
that a third should be added to those two 

" immortal names, 



That were not boru to die 1 " 

Tlie message of tlie Mayor Imving been read, tlie resolutions 
adopted by the Board of Aldermen were then submitted to the 
Common Council. Their passage by tliis brancli of tlie City 
Council was advocated by Messrs. Clement Willis of Ward 8, 
Joseph Story of Ward 5, Benjamin Dean of Ward 12, and Sol- 
omon B. Stebbins of Ward 10, who spoke most earnestly and ap- 
propriately on the subject. The resolutions were then passed 
unanimously in concurrence, each member present rising in his 
place. 

The Chair appointed Messrs. Solomon B. Stebbins of Ward 10, 
Benjamin Dean of Ward 12, and Moses W. Richardson of Ward 
11, delegates on behalf of the Common Council to attend the 
funeral obsequies at Washington. And the President of the Com- 
mon Council, together with IMessrs. Joseph Story of Ward 5, John 
C. Haynes of Ward 9, Sumner Crosby of Ward 12, William D. 
Park of W^ard 7, and Solomon B. Stebbins of W^ard 10, were 
joined to the Committee of Arrangements for the proposed eulogy 
on the illustrious deceased. 

The Common Council then adjourned. 

Attest: W. P. GREGG, Clerk. 



MEETING IN FANEUIL HALL. 



MEETING IX FANEUIL HALL. 



I\ ;ic(.'()i-(.l;ince witli a request from Ili.s Honor tlie ^Nlayor, tlie cit- 
izens of r>oston assembled in Faneuil Hall on the sc\'entccnth of 
April, 181^5, at three o'chick in the afternoon, for the purpose of unit- 
ing in a public expression of their sense of the bereavement which 
tiie nati(jn had sustained in the death of Abraham Lincoln. The 
hall was darkened and heavily draped with emblems of mourning. 
The meeting was called to order by the Mayor, and prayer was 
offered by Rev. S. K. Lothrop, U. D. 

Ilis Honor Mayor Lincoln then addressed the assembly as fol- 
lows : — 

Fellow Citizens: On the morning of tlie 15tli of 
January a revered and distingiiislied citizen, then engaoed 
in the pursuits of private life, died suddenly at his resi- 
dence in Boston. As the news of the sad occurrence 
extended, it produced a profound iniprcssicnr over the whole 
country ; and the President of the United States immedi- 
ately took notice of the event as a national hereavenicnt. 
On the morning- of the 1.3th of April, just three montlis 
after the decease of the retired statesman, — on a day sol- 
emnly set apart hy a portion of the Christian chnrcli to 
commemorate the death of our blessed Lord, — the Presi- 



28 MEMORIAL OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 

(li-nt himself, invested with all the cares and prerogatives 
of official station, was snmmoned to depart this life, and 
to join the vast assembly of good and great of other days. 
On that occasion in January, this venerable hall was 
arrayed in its habiliments of woe ; and to-day, again put- 
ting on its emblems of mourning, Ave are assembled to 
condole with each other in this new grief, and to take 
counsel together on this new sorrow which has fallen 
upon our country. 

The last time the citizens of Boston assembled aa ithin 
these halls, it was to gi\e an expression of the exulting joys 
of a happy people over the recent victories ; to-day we 
meet, bowed down by a common affliction, seeking com- 
fort and consolation from each other in that depression 
of spirits which every heart feels. Yesterday we Avent up 
to our several houses of worship, and before the altars 
of Almighty God, g-athered those lessons of resignation 
for ourselves, and that confidence in the wisdom of the 
Great Disposer of events, which it is the mission of our 
holy religion to inspire. To-day we meet in the accus- 
tomed place for the great gatherings of the people, to 
pav our feeble tribute to the memory of the distinguished 
dead, and to renew our vows of Tuifaltering fidelity to our 
country in this hour of its extreme peril. 

The death of the Chief Magistrate of the nation, who 
has been set apart as its Ruler by the free suft"rages of its 
citizens, always awakens the most tender sympathies and 
the profoundest regrets ; how much more so in the 
recent crisis of our national aff'airs. when the events of 
the last four vcars are so fresh in our remembrance. 



Mr.F.TING IN FAXEUIL HALL. 29 

The hand that guided the sliip of state tlirongli the perils 
of tlie past we fondly trusted woidd remain at the helm 
until all danger was over and gentle hreezes wafted its 
course over calmer seas. 

Wc knew and l>raced oui'selves to the fact, at the com- 
mencement of the unholy Eehellion, that we should he 
called upon to make many sacrifices to accomplish its 
overthrow; hut little did wc think that one so costly and 
dear was to he recpiired as the head of the nation. The 
•fatal shot, which, fired hy an assassin's hand, laid low the 
first in the land, was aimed at the happiness of the ■whole 
people ; and we shall he recreant to duty, and false to our 
high responsibilities if we fail to extirpate the disloyal 
spiiit -which prompted it. We may di\ide and form par- 
ties on minor matters, but let the appalling event we 
deplore unite all the people in one solid phalanx in behalf 
of those principles of Inunanity and eijual rights, which 
our fathers enunciated at the l)irth of the nation, and mIucIi 
Avill render the name of Abraham Lix( olx a blessed mem- 
ory through many generations. 

It is not mv pro\ince, fellow-citizens, to furnish the 
fitting words which will give an expression of the senti- 
ments of this assembly. There are those present who 
will speak of the career and services of the lamented 
dead, and of the exigencies in which the country is now 
placed. My duty is performed, when, in consonance with 
the action of the City Council, you are invited to partici- 
pate in the proceedings of this meeting, and are thus able 
to testify in au official form to the world, the feelings of 
the citizens of Boston on the most solemn and memorable 
event in the history of the coiuitry. 



30 MEMORIAL OF PRESIDENT IINCOLN. 

IIoii. Peleg W. Cliiuuller wa? tlieii introducccl. He said : — 

It is about ten years since the citizens of Boston assem- 
bled at this place to express their opinion npon a most 
outrageous assault on a senator of this Commonwealth, 
who was nearly murdered at his seat in the Capitol of the 
United States. I had the honor to address that meeting, 
and I expressed a strong conviction that this brutal conduct 
of a representative from South Carolina would be prom])tly 
disavowed by the people of that State, — an opinion which 
prevailed to a considerable extent at that time in tliis com- 
munity. So far, however, from the prediction proving 
true, a directly opposite and most lamentable course was 
taken. And so it came to pass that a representative in 
the Congress of the United States from one of the oldest 
States in the Union, who had made a murderous attack 
upon the senator of ^lassachusetts, was everywhere re- 
ceived on his journey home by a perfect ovation. Public 
addresses of congratulation, private letters of thanks, the 
votes of assembled citizens poured in upon him as the 
hero of the hour ; he was re-elected by an inianimous 
vote, and was allowed to occupy, until his death, tlie seat 
he hud disgraced. And now, Mr. Mavor and fellow-citizens, 
we are assembled in Faneuil Hall to consider the assassi- 
nation of the President of the United States, and the 
attempted murder of the Secretary of State, under cir- 
cumstances of brutality, cowardice, and cruelty, that have 
no parallel. 

It has been hinted that this was the act of a drunken 
fool or a madman. Perhaps it was. But drunken fools 



MEETING IN FANEUIL HALL. 31 

and crazy fanatics are not seldom the cliosen instruments 
of those who act in darkness, and resort to murder by 
assassination. 

I do not charge this specific act upon the masses at the 
South ; I do not suppose that the Avicked wretcli had a 
written order in liis pocket from Confederate leaders. But 
I do suppose, I do believe, that this transaction is the 
direct result of the method of these leaders in tlieir en- 
deavor to destroy the Union ; that it is the legitimate fruit 
of the temper in which they have carried on this war from 
the first ; that it is an external manifestation of a people 
half civilized, and of leaders who do not scruple to violate 
every principle of honor in order to accomplish their ne- 
farious designs. The assassination of the President has 
been publicly threatened, time and again. Prisoners of war, 
taken in fair and open fight, have been stripped of their 
clothing and immured in prisons filthy beyond description. 
Scores of brave men have perished by slow starvation, 
while hundreds and thousands have returned to their 
homes only to die or to drag out a wretclied existence of 
premature old age. A man was hung in New York the 
other day, who was said to belong to a wealthy family in 
Virginia, himself well educated after their style, and an 
officer in the Confederate army. This man had been con- 
victed of an attempt to throw a railway train from the 
track, which was crowded with women and children. 

A former officer in the Confederate army is now under 
sentence of death, who, with companions in guilt, under- 
took to fire most of the hotels in a large city, and thus 
destroy hundreds and perhaps thousands of lives of inno- 



32 MEMORIAL OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 

cent people, and this far away from the active operations 
of soldiers in the field. 

When have these crimes heen disavowed ? What high 
and magnanimous Southern officer has condemned them, 
and threatened to resign if they were approved by his 
superiors ] AVhat legislature has stamped them with rep- 
robation I When has the Rebel Congress disapproved of 
them I What Southern newspaper has denounced them ? 

There is nothing in all this to stir up feelings of revenge 
with us. Excited passions can do no good. But we have 
a duty to perform, and the consideration of these transac- 
tions will render that duty less diflacult. The present 
condition of things must cease. We have a lesson to teach 
here, and the pupils must learn that lesson. We must 
banish from the land ever} relic of barbarism. We must 
colonize the country with respectable men. W^e must 
organize school-districts and build schoolhouses, and send 
schoolmasters, and spelling books, and the New England 
Primer, and ministers of the Gospel, and Bibles. We 
must, if necessary, withdraw the missionaries from Turkey 
and Asia Minor, India, and the Islands of the ^Ilgeau Sea, 
and employ them nearer home. We will thus possess and 
elevate this people, to the end that life may be safe, liberty 
secured, property protected, and the Christian religion 
maintained in its purity. 

Mr. CliancUer then offered tlie following 

RESOLUTIONS. 

The citizens of Boston, in Fancuil Hall assembled, desire 



jrEETING IN FANEIIL IIAI.I,. 33 

to bow in lnini1)l(' iiiul tnistiiii;- siilimission to the Divine 
Pl•()^■i(lc'nce h\ wliosc permission onr l)t'love(l nnd honored 
Chief Magistrate has been a iolently removed from the 
scene of his earthly labors ; and they earnestly pray for 
the ability to restrain all feelings of revenge, — '-for it is 
written. Vci/i/rdiicc is iiiiiic, I trill ycj'nj/. snifl/ the lyonl." 

I\csiih-i'(J, 'i'liat the cjiaracter of Abraham Lincoln is one 
of the richest gifts cAer bestowed upon a free peopl(\ An 
enlightened statesman whose highest ambition was the 
happiness of his conntry, — a firm magistrate who knew 
how to tempt'r jnstice with mercy. — a wise rnler who 
listened to the connsels of others, Init always acted npon 
liis own convictions of dnty, — he stands to-day, in the 
affection of all loyal citizens, not second to Washington 
himself. 

licsoJrcd, That we tender to the family of the deceased 
our earnest sympathy in the death of a husband and father 
whose kindness of heart, purity of intention, gentleness, 
firniness, and sincerity are familiar as household -words to 
this whole people. 

RestilretJ, That while we do not attribute to the mass of 
Eeliel citizens any complicity with a crime so enormous as 
the one we now deplore, we are firmly convinced that it is 
the direct result of the principles inculcated by their 
leaders and u state of society that is utterly o[)posed to 
the doctrines of enlightened morality and inconsistent with 
the pure precepts of the Christian religion. The holding 
of human beings in brutal ignorance and hopeless slavery, 
the unprovoked resort to an armed resistance to the Con- 
stitution and laws of the country, the deliberate starving 



5 



34 MEMOUIAL OF PRESIDE-ST LIN'COLN. 

of prisoners taken in war. the roncertcd attempt to bnrn 
the hotels of a hirge eity. fiUed witli women and chikh-en. 
the hrntal assanU upon a senator at his seat in the Capitol, 
and finally the assassination of the Chief Magistrate of 
the country, and the attempted murder of the principal 
executive officer, with every circumstance of cowardice and 
atrocitv, are so many kindred evidences of a state of ignor- 
ance, brutality, and wickedness Avhich have no parallel in 
the history of a civilized people. 

Eesoh-ed, That wc now and here avow our determina- 
tion, on this solenni occasion, to preserve the Union ot our 
fathers, to maintain the Constitution of these United States, 
to enforce the hws of the country, to remove every vestige 
of barbarism from our borders, — to the end that uni^'ersal 
freedom, enlightened civilization, pure morality, and the 
sublime principles of the Christian religion may every- 
where prevail ; and to this we do here, in this temple of 
liberty where our fathers for generations have assembled, 
pledge our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor, in- 
voking the aid and guidance of llim in whose hands are 
the destinies of nations. 

IIoii. Charles G. Loring spoke as follows: — 

FELLow-CrrizExs: You can suspect no one of assuming, 
uninvited, the responsibility of addressing you upon this 
sad and solemn occasion, nor coidd you hold otherwise 
than ia light esteem any one who w^ould shrink from 
obedience to the call to take part in these solemnities. 

It is indeed "ood for us to be here. "We should derive 



MEETING IN FANEUIL HALL. 35 

comfort and strength, in this hour of dcop afflirtion, hy 
thus meeting togctlier, though no words were uttered, and 
we only stood side l)y side with bowed lieads and lull 
hearts in eonseionsness of the sympathy which unites us 
to-day as one stricken family of mourners. But a few 
simple words may he yentured expressiyc of our grief, — a 
few Ayords of counsel and resohe in yiew of the appalling 
eyent which has summoned us here. 

A brief time only has elapsed since we assembled in 
this place to lay our tribute of loye and grateful remem- 
brance upon the bier of a scholar, an orator, and a states- 
man, upon whom w(> had been accustomed to lean for 
guidance and support in the dark hours of oiu- country's 
peril. Oh ! tliat he Avere now here with his matchless 
elocpience to tlnill our hcmrts and nioye our souls as none 
but he could do. 

Not many days afterwards your willing footsteps sought 
this consecrated hall in jubilee and congratulation upon 
our national triumphs, — and these walls rocked with the 
thunders of your applause at every mention of the name 
of the then loyed and reyered head of the nation. 

To-day that head is laid low in the dust, — and a nation's 
exultation and joy arc turned into the profoundest sorrow 
and apprehension. The father of his country is stricken 
down, — the Minister of State, who has conducted the 
foreign diplomacy of the nation with such unriyalled skill 
and lofty patriotism, has been laid low, perhaps neyer to 
rise again, — both liayc fallen by the hands of rebel assas- 
sins, — one in the place of the public assembly, and the 
other in the privacy of his sick-chamber, and perhaps then 



36 MEMORIAL OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 

on liis (Ivini;- bed. The nation stands aghast at the nnex- 
ainpk'd atrocity of tlic crime ; the civilized woild \vill 
tremble and grow pale as it listens to the story. A blow 
has been stricken upon law, humanity, civilization, and 
e\erv sacred sentiment of the human heart, which causes 
the whole moral world to tremljle to its foundations. 

It is in the midst of this tumultuous emotion, my friends, 
when e^ cry one is asking of each other, what shall mc say, 
or what shall we do. — what are to be the consc(piences of 
these stupendous ;itrocities. — what do they teach, and what 
responsibilities do they involve, — that we are assend)led in 
this ^ enerated hall, so redolent of profound humanity, obe- 
dience to the law, and self-sacrificing patriotism, to give 
vent to our grief and take counsel together upon our 
duties. 

Vrhen the first shock given by the ghastly news Avas 
over, and the mind recovered from the paralysis it had 
caused, the immediate emotion in all hearts was that of 
poignant grief as for the death of one personally beloved. 
Coniu>cted as Ave felt onrsehes to hv Avith Abraham Lin- 
ct)ln as the head of our national family, — accustomed as 
A\e A\ere to the displays of his cheerful, genial, generous, 
humane, and loving nature amid the bewildering perplex- 
ities and embarrassments, the boundless responsibilities 
and A exing cares of his official life ; to his nuignanimity, 
forb(\irance. and self-i\)rgetfulness amid the cruel slanders 
and persecutions heaped upon him both at home and 
abroad, Ave felt, eacli cf us could not but feel, that his 
death, besides being a calamity to the nation and the Avorld, 
Avas to us in the- nature' of a domestic loss, touching the 



MEETING IN FANEUIL HALL. 37 

finest and tcndcrest chords of our hearts. It is snrely 
hazanhng notliini^- to assert that no head of a great nation 
was ever so tenderly and heartily loved as was Ahraham 
Lincoln by the great bulk of the American ])eople. That 
love is to-day more veliement and active than ever before, 
and will long continue a vital agent of terrible energy in 
completing the great work for devotion to which he was 
sacrificed. Let no man be ashamed that he shed tears 
iil)on neA\s of the death of Abraham Lincoln. It 
were far better to be accounted among those who did so 
than among tliose who had ncnie to shed on Saturdav 
morning. 

It is. however, the consciousness of the seemingly irre- 
parable loss to our country, in this removal of her trusted 
ruler and guide, that sinks deeper in our hearts, awakens 
our most painful solicitude, and casts the darkest shadow 
upon our future. 

If there be anything marvellous in personal history, — 
if there be anything in the history of nations betokening 
Divine intervention in the appointment of their rulers, — 
if it be manifest that an especial Providence raised up 
George Washington to be the founder of the Ihiion and 
the father of his country, — I hold it to be no less mar- 
vellous and a no les.s signal proof of such interposition, 
that Abraham Lincoln was appointed to be the ruler and 
guide of this nation through the perils of tliis gigantic 
Eebelliou ; to be the father of his country in her new birth 
to a Union founded on still broader principles of law, 
freedom, and humanity, — that she may henceforth take 
her place among the chief of nations with no blot upon 



38 MEMORIAL OF rKESIDENT LINCOLN. 

her pure escutcheon, and no stain upon her name as 
indeed '• the hind of the brave and the home of the free." 

The reckless wish has sometimes been uttered, and in 
the darker hours of the struggle perhaps not unfrc- 
quently, that we liad some leader of transcendent genius 
or intluence at the head of the nation to guide its counsels 
and lead its armies, — a Citsar, a Cromwell, or a Napo- 
leon. 

But nothing could have been more fatal, if not to our 
present success, at least to our permanent safety, than the 
granting of any such wish. Our Government, my friends, 
from its very nature, must depend upon the people, and 
upon them alone. If they are not willing nor able to sus- 
tain it, and assert its just authority, it has failed, it has 
become worthless ; and the sooner it passes into the hands 
of a wise or generous despot the better. The moment the 
salvation of a repulilic rests upon the genius, power, influ- 
ence, or life of any individual or number of individuals in 
authority, that moment its days are numbered, its sub- 
stance has vanished. It is tlie crowning glory of the 
American people at this hour, that, in this desperate 
struggle for national life, amid reverses that at times 
seemed overwhelming, and financial perils that miglit 
well daunt the stoutest statesman, and without a leader of 
marked genius in council or in the field, unless recent 
events have revealed them, the people have carried on 
this great w^ar Avith unflinching courage and persistent 
energy, and with voluntary sacrifices of blood and treas- 
ure, — such as no mere governmental authority could 
have exacted, nor any military chieftain, however feared 
or admired, could have induced. 



MKETIN'G IN FANEUIL HALL. 39 

It is this, ft'llow-fitizens, that makes our progress safe 
hitherto, and our future certain. The people have wilhd 
tlntt the national life shall be sustained, that law and free- 
dom shall bless the land, and the tl;ig- of the Union shall 
waAe. as before, o\er it from the C'anadas to the (iulf, and 
from ocean to ocean. They know and feel that they are 
competent to the task ; and thi' result depends not, and 
cannot l)e made to depend, upon the life or lives, or the 
power or intluence, of any nuin or set of men, however 
individually great. 

And it is exactly here that we find the great fmida- 
mental element in the character of our beloved President, 
that so peculiarly qualified him for the Cliief Magistracy 
of the Union in this hour of its extremity. He was in 
the broadest, truest, deepest, and noblest sense, a man of 
the people, — the incarnation of republican principle and 
sentiment. His whole mental and spiritual structure 
Averc steeped in the faith that with us, government is from 
the people, to be exercised by the people, and for the 
people. If you trace him from his earliest speeches, by 
all that he has written and spoken from the time he left 
his home in Illinois to take upon himself his august office, 
clown to his sublime address at Gettysburg, you will find 
this to be the pervading spirit and fundamental principle 
of them all. He everywhere recognizes the source \vhence 
all authority in this country is derived, the influences that 
should control its exercise, the responsibility it involves to 
the people and the responsibility which it imposes upon 
them. His whole official life may challenge proof of one 
instance of the abuse of authority for any selfish purpose. 



•10 MEMORIAL OF ritF.SIDENT LINCOLN. 

or tho ;issiinii)tion of any, wliicli wc did not conscientionsly 
l)cli('\(> justiticd l)v tlie hnv Tind(-r the nocessitii's of the 
case, and i'or tlic safety of the people whose secnrity was 
placed in his keeping. Of all the atrocions cahnnnies 
which ever stain(<d the blackest page of political ril)a]dry, 
the charges against this great and good man. of intentional 
usnrpation of nnlawful authority, of seeking to tyrannize 
over his fellow-citizens, or of abnsing his high trnst for 
anv selfish pnrpose, A\ill hereafter be regarded ^\\t\\ in- 
crt'dnlitv and indignation nntil they have .sunk with their 
authors into contempt and forgetfnlness. 

Another and no less important element in the character 
of Mr. Lincoln was his personal integrity, so universally 
acknowledged and so characteristic of his whole life, as to 
have given him a title familiar to us all. homely indeed, 
hut one Avhich any family might he proud to retain as a 
patent of American nobility. Nor were his sturdiness. of 
purpose, his perfect sincerity and manly frankness less 
conspicuous, all winning a measure of confidence and love 
vouchsafed to few men on earth, — and of the value of 
whicli in high ])laces, we, my friends, too often seem 
strangely ignorant or forgetful. 

But perhaps the talent Avhich most particularly distin- 
guished Mr. Lincoln, and qualitied him so preeminently 
for his high office as the head of a popular government in 
times of such perilous perplexities and embarrassments, 
and to he the leader and guide in the great organic change 
which it was destined to undergo, was his profound, un- 
obtrusive, and quietly exercised sagacity. 

No one can have watched the (piickness of perception, 



MEETi;SG IN FAMiUIL HALL. 41 

2)rofound good sense and ingenuous simplicity with which 
he has dealt with the numerous emharrassing (questions 
wliich have arisen during his administration, as shown in 
his official papers, correspondence, and reported conversa- 
tions, without admiration and delight. Nor can any one, 
it is l)elie\'e(l, contemplate the tact, the far-reacliing fore- 
sight, the hroad statesmanship and prophetic wisdom 
evinced in his management of the seemingly insohdile 
prol)lem of Shnery, and his gradual preparation of the 
puhlic mind for its final stupendous solution, without a 
feeling akin to awe, as if they could only he the result of 
a Divine inspiration. With perfect comprehension of the 
principles of the C'onstitution, the determination to make 
them the rule of his administration, a mar\ellous insight 
into the moral forces pervading the minds and hearts of 
the people, a religious observer of the indications of Prov- 
idential design, he did not seek to be accounted a prophet, 
Init stood cahnly a waiter upon events as manifi'stations of 
the inevitable results to which all were tending, in order 
to use them aright as means of accomplishing the salvation 
of his country. 

No sketch of the character of Abraham Lincoln, however 
superficial, could be attempted without recognition of his 
simple, fervent, unostentatious piety, breathing alike in 
every important public document and throughout his cor- 
respondence and speeches to the last day of his life. He 
seemed to live and act under a pervading sense of the pres- 
ence and providence of God ; and in this doubtless he 
found much of the strength that preserved him so calm 
and firm, and even cheerful, in the terrific storms through 



42 MEMORIAL OF PRESIDENT LINTOLN. 

■which he was called upon to pilot the State. No one can 
read his parting remarks to his friends in Illinois, when 
first taking leave of them, his exquisite speech at Gettys- 
burg, than which nothing more grand or beantiful has 
fallen from the lips of man in this generation, or his 
snblime address at his second inauguration, which, although 
sneered at by some ignoble critics at home, has brought 
upon their knees even the London Times and Saturday/ 
liecieir, and been pronounced by high authority in England 
" a state paper, which, for political weight, moral dignity, 
and unaffected solemnity, has had no equal in our time," 
without the conviction that he was indeed a God-fearing 
and a God-trusting man. In the language, as it is believed, 
of one of the most eminent authors in England, we may 
well say : " When the heats of party passion and interna- 
tional jealousy have abated, when detraction has spent its 
malice and the scandalous gossip of the day goes the way 
of all lies, the place of Abraham Lincoln in the grateful 
affections of his countrymen, and in the respect of the 
world, will be second only, if it be second, to that of 
"Washington himself." 

These words were written while he was yet living, the 
revered and beloved ruler of our people. But the hand of 
the assassin has stricken him down and " the places that 
once knew him shall know him no more forever." The 
parricides have murdered the father of their country as 
Avell as of ours, for his generous and loving heart embraced 
them as well as us iu its longings for friendly and fraternal 
restoration to the blessings of a common country. They 
have laid low the hand that was outstretched for their 



MEETING IN FANEUIL HALL. 43 

protection from the vengeance of an outraged nation ; they 
have slaughtered their best friend ; and woe, woe to them, 
more than to us, will be the consequence of this atrocious 
murder. 

But we must turn from tliis siid but interesting theme to 
ask ourselves for the interpretation of this seemingly hor- 
rible dream, from which we are yet but half awakened. 
Why has this terril)le sin been suffered to be committed '. 
How is it that the kind providence of God, which we have 
so exultingly,and I trust reverentially, claimed as manifested 
thus far in our behalf, thus apparently withdrawn its pro- 
tection, suffered our beloved leader to be stricken down 
and our joy to be turned into mourning? — our exultant 
hopes into sadness and apprehension I 

It would indeed be presum])tuons in ns to attempt to 
scan or to portray the designs of God in such an event as 
this. All that we may do is humbly to trust that lie 
ordains all things for the best to those who seek the knowl- 
edge of His will, and to lay to heart the lesson He is thus 
teaching as it addresses itself to our consciences and our 
understanding. 

As there seems to be no pretence that the assassins were 
instigated by any sense of personal wrong to themselves in- 
dividually, committed by their victims ; and as the attempted 
destruction of life was not confined to tlie President alone, 
but extended to the Minister of State, holding the next 
most important office in the nation, and whose services 
in this juncture are of peculiar moment ; and there is good 
cause to believe was also designed to embrace the Minister 
of War, holding the keys of the military resources of the 



44 MEMORIAL OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 

nation, and other offices of state, there can be no reason- 
able doubt that these crimes were the fruits of a conspiracy 
for the breaking up or crippling of the Government, with a 
view to save the sinking fortunes of the Rebels, by giving 
them time for rallying their scattered forces and reviving 
their fainting courage, or for the deadly purpose of wreak- 
ing a fiendish revenge for the overthrow which they have 
sustained. 

Where this conspiracy originated, and how far it ex- 
tended; whether it Avas in pursuance of a plan concerted 
by the Ivebel leaders, or under their auspices, or whether 
it was confined to a {cv>' desperate men only, is not and 
perhaps never may be satisfactorily ascertained. Nor, so 
far as our future safety or duty is concerned, is it material. 

Uidiappily for them, the whole course of conduct of the 
instigators and leaders of this Rebellion has been notori- 
ously such as to render their participation or connivance 
in a crime like this neither impossible nor incredible. It 
is of hardly less, if any inferior atrocity, though of more 
dramatic conspicuousness, than many others of which they 
have been guilty. The whole tone of public sentiment 
with which they haAc long and systematically labored, by 
every species of falsehood and malignity, to poison and 
embitter the heart of the South against the North; the 
rewards offered in their pul)lic prints for the heads of 
Union officers ; the atrocious threats and anathemas which 
they have, in public and in private, poured out upon the 
heads of our soldiers and people ; the no longer question- 
able, deliberate, and fiendish destruction of the lives of 
thousands, and tens of thousands, of our brethren, their 



MEETING IN FANEUIL HALL. 45 

prisoners of war, by lingoriiit;' deatlis from cold and star- 
vation ; tlic almost nniversal criu'lty with wliicli otlicrs were 
killed, maimed, or insnltcd, and ca en by women acconnting 
themselves ladies ; all too plainly indicate a deadly rancor 
and hatred luirsed and enconragi'd towards the people of 
the North, of which this crime is nothing more than 
the natural frnit, and for which these instigators and 
leaders are jnstly acconntablc. It is bnt tlie natural cnl- 
mination of the ferocity against the Xorth so long culti- 
vated as a Southern virtue. 

It may be that tliis lesson was needed, more fully to 
impress upon us and the world the true character of this 
Rebellion, its inherent atrocity and the necessity for the 
further continuance of our utmost energy and cauticni in 
its entire suppression until every vestige of future danger 
shall have been removed. It may be that, bewildered l)y 
the magnitude of the Rebellion, extending o-\er so vast an 
area, and infecting such large numbers of men, and daz- 
zled by the valor and persistency with which they have 
attempted to maintain their cause, or lulled by the syren 
song of returning peace and commercial prosperity, we 
were becoming blind to the enormity of the crime ; that a 
weak sentimentality was taking place of our manly perccp- 
tion of the right, and our resolution to maintain it ; that 
there was danger that the old party associations and atRIia- 
tions between Northern and Southern politicians might be 
again revived to enable the South to recover its ancient 
sway over the land, and allow its former leaders to resume 
their places in the halls of Congress. 

It may be that the perfidy of thi^ authors and plotters 



46 MEMORIAL OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 

of the Eebt'llion. in planning' and [)rcpai'ing for its accom- 
plishment, while holding posts of honor and tiust under 
the Government, which they intended to destroy ; that the 
stealing of fortresses and arms and amminiition held in 
trust for its use ; the memorable bloody assault in the 
Senate chamber, on the perpetrator of which civic honors 
and splendid gifts and the approving smiles of fair women 
were showered without numl)er, — a just t) pe, indeed, of 
this then incipient crime ; the bayoneting of wounded 
soldiers on the field of battle ; the conversion of skulls of 
those killed into drinking-cu})s and their bones into arm- 
lets and necklaces ; the robbery of prisoners of their only 
clothing; the raids and murders upon private citizens; 
the setting on fire of hotels and places of pulilic amuse- 
ment filled with women and children in crowdi'd cities ; 
the deliberate, fiendish murder of tens of thousands of 
prisoners of war by lingering deaths from cold and starva- 
tion — it may hv that all these were not enough to excite 
in us and foreign nations a due sense of the terrible enor- 
mities of this llebellion in its origin and prosecution, but 
that the dreadful climax of cold-blooded assassination was 
needed to complete its crowning atrocity and shame, and 
to make it stand out before the world and go down to his- 
tory with this furtlun- dread stamp of infamy branded 
upon its forehead. 

Perhaps the nolile aristocriuy of England, who have so 
readily joined hands with the bastard aristocracy of the 
South, founded upon traffic in human fiesh, may recoil a 
little now that the hands of their chosen allies are clotted 
with the blood of the assassin's victim, as well as with that 



MEETING IN FANEUIL HALL. 47 

of the slave. And tlic puissant Kinporor of the French, 
who so adroitly attempted to embarrass our (iovernment 
and encourage the llebellion by his new Mexican empire, 
and who has had impressive experience, may, perhaps, 
feel a little tluttering at the heart, when he retiects that his 
American allies are not TJebels only, but assassins also. 

It is to be hoped, and we will believe so long as Ave 
may, that the great mass of the Southern people will look 
upon this stu})endous crime with horror and detestation ; 
and that it may awaken many of them to a sense of the 
hideous nature of the Rebellion and its inevitable tenden- 
cies. To all such, who may be disposed to return to tlieir 
allegiance to the Government in sincerity and good fatli. 
we should stand ready with open arms to receive tliem ; 
but to the plotters and instigators of this foul treason, and 
its chief managers and leaders, no such return should l)e 
permitted. Their extermination by deatli or exile is the 
only atonement that can be made for the oceans of pre- 
cious blood with which they have deluged the land and 
desolated our homes ; the only reasonable vindication of 
the majesty of tlie laws they have Aiolatcd, and of the 
authority they have defied. 

The right of military occupation of the territories of 
the Rebel States, until the inhaliitants sliall liave been en- 
tirely subdued and brought into submission to tlie authority 
of the Government of the Union, is unquestionable. That 
right v.ill not cease upon the mere laying down of arms and 
professions of allegiance. It will continue so long as 
there is reason to apprehend danger of renewed revolt, or 
resistance of the law. or violation of the peace or rights of 



48 MEMORIAL OF TRESIDKNT LINCOLN. 

loyal citi/ens, to whose safVty such occupation is essential. 
Aud of the necessity of its continuance the (jovcrnment is 
the sole and exclusive legal judge. Whenever, then, such 
allegiance shall be honestly declared and faithfully adhered 
to by the great majority of the inhabitants, let them be re- 
stored as an organized State under the Constitution, visit- 
ing with condign punishment those disposed to disturb its 
peace or withhold such allegiance. But whenever the 
people submit, only because they nnist, to superior force, 
and retain their sidlen hatred of the people and govern- 
ment of the loyal States, and their disposition to evade or 
resist its lawful authoritv, their let no such restoration take 
place, — and if they elect extermination by exile or death 
rather than faithful allegiance, then let that extermination 
come, and let the blood be upon their own heads. Our 
first, our most solenm and imperati\ e duty to ourselves, to 
our posterity, and to the civilized world, is to restore the 
authority of the Union throughout the length and breadth 
of the land originally under its sway. And here to-day, 
upon the altar of our country, now freshly weeping with 
the blood of its last and chief martyr, let us unitedly and 
fervently pledge oursehes, that we will expend the last 
dollar of our means, and coin our heart's blood it need 
be, to fulfil this dut} and accomplish this great salvation. 

Fellow-citizens : One of the grandest, if not the sub- 
limest, of the manifestations of the character of our peo- 
ple, in the vicissitudes of this terrible conflict, has been the 
religious faith Avhich they have manifested alike in its suc- 
cesses and its reverses. Indeed, it seems hardly possible, 
in contemplation of the wonderful course of events, all, 



MEETING IN FANEUIL HALL. 49 

however seemingly adverse some may liave for a time ap- 
peared, working together to produce the grand resnlt, in 
the near approach of which we now rejoice, — and in 
view of the final solntion of that dread problem of hnman 
slavery which had so long baffled the wisdom of the 
wisest, and seemed hopeless even in the eyes of Christian 
faith, — it seems, I say, hardly possible to donbt the imme- 
diate hand of God, as guiding ns throngh this wilderness 
of crime and snft'ering. INIay a\ e not hope that the fervent 
f\iith of onr fathers has descended, with their love of free- 
dom and energy of character, to their children, and that 
Ave may manifest onrsehes to be, as they were, a God- 
trnsting and God-abiding people ? God has permitted his 
chosen servant, after fulfilment of the glorious mission on 
which he was sent, to depart without lingering pain, in the 
zenith of his fame, amidst the affections of a grateful peo- 
ple, and with the tears of a great nation falling on his 
grave, to take liis place above, with Ilim upon whom he 
trusted, — and his place in the eternal memory of ages, by 
the side of the Father of his Country. Let us humbly 
believe that His guardian care will still be o\er us, and 
that this dire calamity, now so fearful in our eyes, nuiy be 
made instrumental in the restoration of our country. 

One other duty awaits us, my friends, to which I must 
allude before relieving your patience. It is that which 
wc owe to him who now, under the Constitution, has be- 
come the Chief Magistrate of the nation. lie Avas chosen 
by ns to the position which now makes him the executive 
head of the Union, because of our confidence in his ability 
and patriotism ; because of his meritorious services in up- 



50 MEMORIAL OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 

holding the Governineiit in cdrcunistauces of peculiar per- 
sonal peril, and his unquestionable fidelity to the cause of 
the Union. Let us, then, readily and cheerfully pledge to 
him the same united and cordial support given to his pre- 
decessor, in full confidence that he will deserve it, — and 
so fulfil the solemn duties of his exalted station as to en- 
rol his name also, among the distinguished benefactors of 
his country. 

Plon. Alexander II. Eice was then introduced. He said : — 

jSIr. Mayor; I earnestly -wish that I might remain a 
silent observer and listener amid these solenm scenes. 
To me the occasion needs no interpretation by speech ; 
the meditations of the last two days, the appalling tidings 
as they have spread from mouth to mouth, the saddened 
countenances of the people, the tearful eyes, the beating 
hearts, the solemn step, the decorated dwellings, the 
closed places of business, and now these mourning 
emblems in this temple of liberty, — these are the 
eloquent interpreters of the public sorrow. 

I feel deep down in my soul a fervent love and 
veneration for that great and good patriot Avho has just 
now passed from the society of men and the duties of earth 
to the assembly of heaven ; but it is impossible for me 
thus early either to rightly estimate his services or to 
portray his virtues. It will indeed require more than 
one day or one lifetime to gather up all the beneficent 
fruits of his career. 

Would that some tongue could gather up all that he 



:meeting in faneuil hall. 51 

lias done and its consequences, and i)Our it into the ears 
of this nation and of" mankind, so that in this time of 
stupendous sorrow wc might hiy upon his bier the just 
tribute of our Aeneration and gratitude and h)ve. Ih^ 
was a patriot and a statesman in the broadest and 
comph'test signification of those terms. He was emi- 
nently wise, fearless in the maintenance of the right, as 
gentle as a child to the erring, magnanimous l)eyond 
all precedent to his personal enemies. "Who that con- 
templates such a character, united to siuh varied and 
important services as marked his administration ot the 
Presidential office, can but exclaim, O, Justice, surveying 
our past national sins, could'st thou be satisfied with no 
less a sacrifice ■? O, Death, could not reddened fields 
and hecatombs of dead complete thy carnival without 
taking him also who was the deliverer and tlie hope of 
this people ? 

Fellow Citizens : Among the great benefits which the 
nation has derived from its experience imder the guidance 
of him whose departure we mourn, is a better knowledge 
of ourselves and of the nature and stability of the institu- 
tions under which we live. We have, during the whole 
of his administration, lieen passing through the terrible 
ordeal of civil war. Before the test of this experience 
Avas applied, one-half of the discord and resistance Avhich 
Ave have endured, Avould, in the belief of mankind, have 
throAA'n the nation into anarchy, and its institutions, ci^•il 
and political, into ruin ; but Avith all the conflicts of the 
four years past, and Avith the prospect of innnediatc peace 
before us, I believe the nation is stronger noAV than it has 



52 MEMORIAL OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 

been at any period since the sun first shone upon its flag. 
And we may also learn from tliis last and tragical calamity 
that the country lives, not in men, but in institutions and 
laws. Let us gather out of the past and the present the 
sustaining hope that comes to us as we look upon the 
effigies of departed patriots by which we are here sur- 
roTinded, and upon whom and their compeers the 
Eepnblic so much depended in days by gone. AVash- 
ington is dead, Franklin is dead, the Adamses are dead, 
and all their associates are gone. Clay and Jackson, and 
our own ^^'ebster and Everett, of later years, have 
departed, and now Lincoln is dead. But the Eepublic 
lives ; and because its foundations are laid in immortal 
truth, it will live as long as the stars shine on the face of 
the sky. And hence we derive the admonition that we 
must not long bathe our fixces with tears, must not stand 
gazing upon the cold remains in the rresidential mansion, 
nor into the waiting grave so soon to receive all that is 
mortal of him in whom we just now trusted. We may, 
indeed, mingle our sympathies with that weeping wife 
and with those sorrowing children, Aveighed down with 
grief almost insupportable ; and we may mourn with the 
poor and the oppressed everywhere, Avho have lost, in 
the martyred President, their greatest friend and their un- 
tiring benefactor. But we must summon also our best 
energies for the new exigencies and duties of the present 
and the future which this calamity has thrown npon us 
and upon our coimtrymcn. And first of all let us give 
our prompt and cordial and undivided snp[)ort to Andrew 
Johnson, who now becomes President in accordance with 



JIEETING IN FANEUIL HALL. 53 

the provisions of the Constitution. He is worthy of our 
confidence, of our respect, and of our hearty co-operation 
ill the great and exliausting duties to which he is so 
suddenly called. Since he appeared in puldic life, his 
career has been that of a patriot and a hero ; and since 
the great Rebellion against the Government arose, he, a 
Southern man, has maintained a steadfast fealty to his 
country, to its laws, its institutions and to its lilierties ; 
and, Avhether in the Senate Chamber or as Governor of 
Tennessee, has met the doctrines and machinations of 
treason in every form with manly and defiant resistance. 
Let us admit to our minds no fears or doubts that the 
same guiding Providence which has carried tlu' nation 
safely thus far through this tremendous trial Mill l)e with 
it to the end. Does some man say that he does not know 
Andrew Johnson I Well, we knew Abraham Lincoln even 
less ; but we took him upon trust, and God revealed him 
to us as a great instrument of his power in delivering the 
oppressed from their bondage, and in shaping the destiny 
of this nation through a more exalted and illustrious career. 
Does some man doubt whether any successor can be like 
him? God only knows how great a patriot or what 
A'aried qualities of mind and heart may be needed ; liut if 
the exigencies of the immediate future shall call for the 
exercise of great and strong, and yet gentle powers, we 
may trust that the selection of him who now accedes to 
the place of the lately departed President, was not made 
without the same acknowledged Divine interposition and 
direction. 

The record of Andrew Johnson is the historv of a brave 



54 



MEMORIAL OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 



and lioncst mail, possessing a coiiiprelicnsive iiiiiul, an 
open and generous lieart quickened by the impulses of 
patriotic devotion to liberty and his country. And if, in 
these hours of natural depression and distrust, there be 
doul)ts whether every event in his career has merited our 
approbation ; if. in short, in a single instance we should 
Inn e felt a strong and fervent disapproval, yet let God be 
praised if Ave can any of us gather all our misdoings into 
the compass of a single act ; ay, and let lliin be devoutly 
thanked if we can offset the damaging incident by a long 
record of laborious and faithful services. For mv part, 
Mr. Mayor and fellow-citizens, I have confidence and hope 
in the future : apart from this great tragedy all the events 
and circumstances by which we are encompassed are en- 
couraging. The Army and Navy of the Republic have 
pressed back the once towering and threatening waves of 
Treason and Rebellion. The lamented President, their 
Commander-in-Chief, lived long enough to see the Rebel 
flags' trailed in the dust and the Rebel leader surrender the 
flower of his army. He lived long enough to sec the 
Rebellion practically ended ; and in looking for the instruc- 
tive lesson that it may be designed we shall be taught by 
the melancholy and tragic event which has taken the Chief 
Magistrate of tlu^ country from us, perhaps God in His 
wisdom saw it was a greater boon than any one mortal 
should possess, to enjoy all the benedictions that shall 
follow the triumph over rebellion and the restoration of 
peace to our distracted land. Perhaps it was necessary 
for our future security and for the ends of justice, that he 
should pass away at this point of time and at this stage of 



MEETING IN FANEUIL HALL. 55 

public affairs, and be succeeded by another, bom and 
raised in that section of the country A\lierc the Eebcllion 
was nurtured and originated, and who more intimately 
understands its atrocity, and the spirit and purposes of 
parricides and traitors. 

It may be that Andrew Johnson's knowledge of the com- 
plications of slavery with the civil and industrial systems of 
the rebellious States, was necessary to secure us against the 
reappearance of its influence, and to blot out its existence 
from our laud. It may be that his firm hand was necessary 
to guide the nation's settlement with the public enemies in 
accordance with the terms of law and righteousness. He 
has yet had no opportunity to declare his official policy, nor 
to state with deliberation what he will seek to do Avith those 
who may be amenable to 'the law ; but he has declared that 
he esteems treason to be the greatest of crimes, — a crime to 
be punished and not lightly forgiven, — and in this declar- 
ation he has but embodied the sentiment and feeling of a 
large majority of his countrymen. Exhilarated by the 
prospect of returning peace, we unite the influences of 
magnanimity, of charity, and of forgivness ; we accept the 
conviction and cherish the hope that by some means, in 
the exercise of forbearance and consistently with tlu' public 
honor and a sense of justice, the masses of the people in 
the now alienated sections of the country are to become 
speedily reconciled; but the instigators of this Treason and 
Eebellion, the authors and principals in its barbarous atro- 
cities, and sickening cruelties, and assassinations, nuist 
su.fFer the penalty of their crimes. AVe want no more of 
their seditious utterances, sent forth to breed discord and 



66 MEMORIAL OF TRESIDENT LINCOLN. 

death tbrougli tlic land ; we want no more of tlieir open 
or secret conspiracies against the lives either of citizens or 
of the Republic ; no more of their presence in our halls 
of legislation, none of their fellowship in our society ; and 
the loyal people -will demand that henceforth they shall 
not be admitted there. This is demanded, not by vengeance 
but by justice, if there be any virtue in penalties anywhere, 
and as a security in the future against the recurrence of a 
similar calamity ; that it may teach the lesson also to future 
Presidents and Cabinets that the power and authority of 
the nation are superior to those of the States ; and that 
hereafter treason must be strangled in its infancy. 

Fellow-citizens, let us not doubt, even in this dark hour 
of national sorrow, that peace is near at hand, — such a 
peace as shall bring compensation for the sacrifices and 
for the heroism of this war, — peace to a country delivered 
from slavery as Avell as from war ; and which in view of its 
future greatness and reunion is already calling upon us for 
a fresh consecration to freedom and to God. 

Hon. Ricliaid H. Dana, Jr., made the following remarks: — 
The Martyr President ! The ]Martyr President ! 

" Treason lias done its worst! N"or steel, nor poison, 
Malice domestic, foreign levy, notbing 
Can touch liiia further." 

This is the great tragedy of history ! The most appalling, 
the most pernicious, the most sickening ! For the assassi- 
nation of rulers, there has often been some show of 
provocation or public cause ; but our President has 



MEETING IN FANELIL HALL. 57 

— " borne his faculties so meek, hath been 
So clear in his great office, that his virtues 
Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongucd, against 
The deep damnation of his taking off." 

But this catastrophe is too vast, its lessons too vital, for 
us to linger long about the person of the victim, however 
strongly affection may bind us. Simple, prudent, natural, 
faithful, affectionate, as a man ; events and causes provi- 
dential, inherent, circumstantial, and accidental have 
made him the central figure in the great era of modern 
times. It would be unworthy of him and his place in 
history, beneath the vastness of the catastroph(\ unfitting 
the sacreduess of this Hall, if we did not force our minds 
from the contemplation of the tragic scene and the pers(nial 
loss, to listen to the great lessons that this event is reading 
to us. 

It seems to be written that no great blessing, no redemp- 
tion can come to race or nation, as not to human nature 
itself, without the shedding of blood. This blood must be 
sacramental to our country. It must be the seal, the final 
seal to the covenant of our national existence and of 
human rights. 

Shall we dip our napkins in bis blood with vows of 
vengeance I No ! The innocent blood of that kind heart 
would teach us no such lesson. His life and death were 
for his country and the liberty of the oppressed. Let us 
take to heart then, as in the presence of the dead, the 
lessons his death teaches us. 

The spirit of assassination must be rebuked and cast 
out. AYe owe it to the safety of our public men, and to 



58 MEMORIAL OF TRESIDEKT LINCOLN. 

the fair fame of our country. We hoped it was the vice 
of other ages and other climes. Is it possible that the 
Southern temper, Avith the passions which Slavery fosters, 
is developing in that direction ? When our Senator was 
struck down in the Senate chamber, by the representative 
from Carolina, was it rebuked? was it discountenanced by 
the power in whose interests it was done I No ! It was ap- 
plauded and honored by its legislatures, by its constituen- 
cies, by its press, without one prominent responsible excep- 
tion. Then came the murders and massacres by which Sla- 
very was forced into Kansas. Then came the general appeal 
to arms. Is it possible, that that appeal failing, there is a 
spirit that leads them to the secret steel and to the poisoned 
cup ? If this be so, the soldier must meet it in arms, the 
magistrate with the sword of justice, wherever it appears 
in act. These nuirderers are not paradoxes, anachronisms, 
witliout cause or accompaniments. They are but the crests 
of a wave that lifts them up and bears them on. The spirit 
must be exorcised, not by violence, not by retaliation, for 
then ■\iolence becomes the order of the day. Wherever 
any of its spirit appears, religion must denounce it as a 
sin, and society cast it out as an offence. Here, in New 
England, if there is a spot which did not answer with 
horror to the tidings of this crime, " Let that spot be puri- 
fied, or let it cease to be of New England." If there was 
a man whose first thought and i;tterance were not that of 
horror and reprobation, who needed a second thought to 
furnish him the seemly utterance, What shall we do with 
him 1 I Avill tell you. If he be hungry, feed him ! If he 
be naked, clothe him ! sick or in prison, minister unto 



MEETING IN FANEUIL HALL. 59 

him ! But mark liim ! Let him hvc ! But k't him live 
among you " a man forhid." 

The hist four years have been a daily issue of life and 
death for our country, the most momentous, perilous, and 
costly struggle ever made for a nation's life. The scale 
has turned for life. The clouds of war are clearing away, 
but the civil dangers are imminent. Among the last words 
of Mr. Lincoln, I find a true statement of the great prin- 
ciple which must guide us, and which at this hour we may 
lay to heart He declared that this E.el)cllion is the act of 
individuals, and return to allegiance must be the act of 
individuals ; that there is no public body to be dealt with. 
If that simple, homely principle is adhered to, ths lle- 
puljlic will come out a Government, — in the strict sense 
of the term, a Stufc. If it is not adhered to, we permit 
ourselves to be resolved into a Confederation. He clearly 
understood that the Eepublic was a sovereignty, to which 
each citizen owed a direct and paramount allegiance, from 
which no State could absolve him, and consequently that 
in return to allegiance and in the restoration of peace, no 
State could be a party to a transaction with the Eepublic. 
In war with a recognized nation, there is a power with 
Avhich you can make a treaty of peace, and a moment up 
to which lawful war exists, and after which peace begins. 
But in this Rebellion, peace must come as fair weather 
comes after a tempest, as general health comes after the 
plague or the cholera. But who ever heard of health es- 
tablished by a compact to which the public were one party 
and the epidemic another'? Yet, how near some ill-in- 
structed men came to sacriiicing this vital principle the 



60 MEMORIAL OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 

otlu'i- day at Riclimond ! Thank God, the President lived 
long enough, Avith his Cabinet, to set it right ! No State 
can be permitted to repeal its ordinance of secession. Xo 
State Legislature can be permitted to deliberate upon the 
question of coming back into the Union. The authority 
of the Republic over every foot of its soil and every one 
of its citizens has never ceased. It must go on as of ri(/!it, 
and not by the consent of any body natural, or any body 
political. 

Mr. Lincoln, from the beginning of his public life until 
war changed the face of the question, contented himself 
with resisting the advance of Slavery. Had the country 
resisted it as he did, the war might never have begun. At 
last, he would be content with nothing less than its total 
extinction. This lesson his death must consecrate. To this 
covenant of freedom the seal of his blood is set. 

There is but one more lesson which at this moment I 
seem to read through the gloomy air. It is the lesson of 
forgiveness and conciliation. But when and how ] They 
are neither wise nor humane who arc inexorable as to per- 
sons, but cloudy and temporizing on the vital principle. 
Let us be inflexible on the principle. When that has 
triumphed, when the Republic is recognized as paramount 
by its own power and right, when all citizens have submit- 
ted as individuals, and the course of civil law runs smooth 
through the country, then the lesson of conciliation and 
pardon is to be put in practice. Then, not till then, has 
the war ceased. A trial of strength or skill, a boxing- 
match, ends when one party ceases to fight. But war is 
not a trial of strength. It is a resort to force, to secure a 



MEETING IN FANEUIL HALL. 61 

public object. You may hold your enemy in the grasp of 
war, until your just objects are secured. We will then 
practise conciliation and forgiveness to the full measure of 
Mr. Lincoln's kind and generous heart. In vast political 
rebellions, which have taken the dimensions of war, and 
have been treated as belligerent for the time, at home and 
abroad, — it is justifiable to punish as traitors a few who 
originated and concocted the treason. Yet, after security 
is obtained, it is not in accordance with Christian civiliza- 
tion or the dignity and best interests of a people, to pursue 
whole communities with criminal or penal consequences. 
God grant the time may come, and that speedily, when a 
conciliation and peace may exist over the land, which 
would satisfy the kindest wishes of this our chief martyr, 
e^er hereafter to be called — of blessed memory ! 

The meeting closed with a Benediction, pronounced by Eev. Dr. 
Lothrop. 



PROCESSIOiN 



SERYTOES OX THE FEKST (IF JENE. 



PROCESSION AND SERVICES ON THE FIRST OF JUNE. 



The President oftlie United States liaving- set apart Tluirsday, tliu 
first of Jnne, 18(35, as a day wliereon all should lie occupied at the 
same time in contemplation of the virtues, and sorrow for the sud- 
den and violent end of Abraham Lincoln, that day was selected by 
the Committee appointed under the resolutions of the City Council, 
as a proper occasion for the delivery of a Eulogy before the City 
Government. An invitation was extended to the Honorable Charles 
Sumner, to deliver the Eulogy in Music Hall, and was accepted. 
As a number of organizations, civil and military, had expressed a 
desire to make some demonstration of respect to the memory of the 
late President, arrangements were made for a Procession on the 
same day. Col. Francis W. Palfrey was appointed Chief ^lar- 
shal ; and, in accordance with a general invitation from His Honor 
the JNIayor, a large number of bodies, Military, Masonic, Chari- 
table, Trades, and Fire companies, in P>oston and its iuunediate 
vicinity, reported to him for orders. The Procession was announced 
to move at 12 o'clock M., and was marshalled in the following 
order : — 

THE ESCOET. 

^Mounted Police under the connnand of Capt. Edward H. Savage, 

Deputy Chief. 

Brig. Gen. "\Vm. F. Bartlett, Commanding Escort. 

Capt. Chas. B. Amory, Assistant Adj. General. 



66 MEMORIAL OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 

Bnnd from tin' t'liarlestown N:ivy Yard. 
Baftnlion of United States ^Marines, Capt. George Butler Com- 
manding. 
Dctaclimcnt of Sailors from the United States Receiving Siiip. 
Boston Brigade Band. 
Independent Corps of Cadets, Lieut. Col. C. C. Holmes. 
Seeond Regiment of Infantry, M. Y. M., Lieut. Col. O. W. Pea- 
body commanding. 
Twenty-fifth LTnattaclied Company, j\I. Y. j\I., Capt. Alfred X. 
Proctor. 
Horse's Cambridge Band. 
Fourteenth Unattached Company, M. Y. M., Capt. Lewis Gaul. 
Ninth Unattached Company, M. Y. j\I., Capt. Geo. H. Smith. 
First Unattached Company, M. Y. M., Capt. INIoses E. Bigelow. 
Cambridge Brass Band. 
Thirty-first Unattached Company, INI. Y. M., Capt. Robt. 
Torrey, Jr. 
Twelfth Unattached Company, M. Y. ]\L, Capt. Geo. A. Meacham. 
First Light Battery, M. Y. M., Capt. Lucius J. Cummings. 
Second Light Battery, M. Y. M., Capt. Warren French. 
Haverhill Cornet Band. 
Thirty-fourth Unattached Company, ftL Y. M., Capt. Charles F. 

Harrington. 
Fourth Unattached Company, M. V. ^l., Capt. John Q. Adams. 
Fortietii Unattached Company, M. Y. M., Capt. John R. Farrell. 
Forty-sixth Unattached Company, :\I. Y. M., Capt. Timothy A. 

Hurley. 

Co. D. 42d Regiment of Inf\intry, jM. Y. M., Capt. J. P. Jordan. 

Fifty-third Unattached Company, jNI. Y. M., Capt. John ^laguire. 

Chauncy Hall School Company, Capt. Gerald Wynian. 

English High School Company, Capt. Thomas G. Johonnot. 

Gilmore's Band. 



PROCESSION AND SERVICES. 



67 



Seventh Regiment of Infmitry, ^l. V. M., Cupt. II. O. Wliitte- 

niore commanding. 

Clielsea Brass Band. 

First Battalion of Cavalry, M. V. M., Major Chas. W. Wilder. 

Capt. Geo.W. Bird, Ciiief Engineer of the Fire Department. 

Assistant Engineers, John S. Damrell, David Chamberlin, Joseph 

Dunbar. 

Veterans of the Department in carriages. 

Engine No. 1, Cai)t. Fred. AVright. 

Hose No. 1, Capt. B. C. Brownell. 

Hook and Ladder No. 1, Capt. Moses Place. 

Engine No. 2, Capt. John Brown. 

Hose No. 2, Capt. Benj. Wright. 

Hook and Ladder No. 2, Capt. Charles Simmons. 

Engine No. 3, Capt. F. Hines. 

Hose No. 3, Capt. Geo. W. Clark. 

Hook and Ladder No. 3, Capt J. F. ^Marston. 

Engine No. 4, Capt. John A. Fines. 

Howard Engine No. 1, of Charlestown, Capt. H. L. Whiting. 

Fire King Engine No. 2, of Chelsea, Capt. D. W. Pepper. 

Hose No. 4, Capt. H. V. Haywood. 

Engine No. 5, Capt Geo. A. Tucker. 

Hose No. 5, Capt. Silas Lovell. 

Engine No. (5, Capt. Chas. C. Geer. 

Hose No. G, Capt. Joseph Barnes. 

Engine No. 7, Capt. Geo. L. Imbert. 

Engine No. 8, Capt. John S.Jacobs. 

Hose No. 8, Capt. Chas. H. Prince. 

Hose No. 9, Capt. Thos. C. Byrnes. 

Engine No. 10, Capt Kufus B. Farrar. 

Hose No. 10, Capt. Joseph Frye. 



68 



MEMORIAL OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 



Col. Fraxcfs ^V. Palfiiey, Ckief Mdrshal. 
Aids. 

Brevt. Brig. Gen. Win. S. Tilton, Col. Ciias. L. Peirson, 

Maj. B. W. Crowninshield, Francis Bartlett, 

A. J. Holbrook, John M. Glidden. 

Volunteer Aids, consisting of officers of Massachusetts Volunteers, 
under the command of Col. A. F. Devereux. 

FIRST DIVISION. 

Portsmouth Brass Band. 

Detachment of Police under Sergeant Dunn. 

Brevet. Brig. Gen. F. A. Osborn, Chief of Division. 

ISI.aj. Edward C. liichardson, Cajit Tlios. INl. Sweet, Marshals. 

Col. John Kurtz, Chief of Police. 
His Honor the Mayor, and President of the Common Council. 
Committee of Arrangements and Chaplains of the Day. 
Invited guests, consisting of officers of the Army and Navy, rej^re- 
sentatives of Foreign Powers, and distinguished gentle- 
men from abroad. 
Members of the Board of Aldermen, the City Clerk, and City 
Messenger. 
Members of the Common Council and Clerk. 
]\Iembcrs of the School Committee. 
Trustees, Superintendent, and Librarian of the Public Library. 
Trustees and Superintendent of the City Hospital. 
Trustees of the Mount Hope Cemetery. 
Members of the Board of Directors for Public Institutions, and 
officers of the Institutions. 
Members of the Cochituate "Water Board and Secretary. 
City Treasurer, City Auditor, City Solicitor, and City Engineer. 



PROCESSION AND SERVICES. 69 

City Physician, Port Physician, Consulting Physician, and Physi- 
cians anil Surgeons of tlie City Hospital. 
Superintendent of Streets, Superintendent of Public Buildings, Su- 
perintendent of Internal Health, Superintendent of Sewers 
and Lands. 
City Kcgistrar and '\^'atcr Pcgistrar. 
Principal Assessors and other city officers. 
Members of the iMassachusetts Society of the Cincinnati. 
Members of the Humane Society of Massachusetts, 
ileniliers of the Massachusetts Historical Society. 
Members of the Historic-Genealogical Society. 

SECOND DIVISION. 

Boston Cornet Band. 

Sam'l A. B. Bragg, Chief of Division. 

Geo. M. White,.!. Frederic Marsh, Marshals. 

This Division was composed of the following named Temperance 
Organizations : — 

New Era Division. 

Grand Division. 

Old Bay State Division. 

Massachusetts Division. 

American Division. 

Caledonia Division. 

Island Homo Division. 

Bond's Cornet Band. 

Grand Temple of Honor. 

Trimount Temple of Honor. 

Bay State Temple of Honor. 

Union Temple of Honor. 

Crvstal Fount Tcmiilc of Honor. 



TO MEMORIAL OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 

Williams Temj)le of Honor. 

Conimonwealth Temple of Honor. 

Kadiant Star Temple of Honor. 

Sagamore Tcnijile of Honor. 

Naiad Temple of Honor. 

All the Organizations were clad in regalia, and bore the banners 
and insignia peculiar to tiie order. 



THIRD DIVISIOX. 

Germania Band. 
Will. B. May, Chief of Division. 
Wm.H Hill, Jr., Asa Potter, Marshals. 
The Grand Lodge and Subordinate Lodges of iNLasons of Mas- 
sachusetts. 
Woburn Brass Band. 

The Grand Lodge of the Independent order of Odd Fellows of 

Massachusetts, and Subordinate Lodges, as follows : — 

Massachusetts Lodge. 

Siloam Lodge. 

Boston Lodge. 

Oriental Lodge. 

Tremont Lodge. 

Franklin Lodge. 

Bethesda Lodge. 

Hermann Lodge. 

Bunker Plill Lodge, Charlestown. 

Mutual Relief Lodge, Haverhill. 

iMontezunia Lodge. 

Bond's Second Band. 

Ancient York Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons. 



PROCESSION AND SERVICES. 71 



rOUKTII DIVISION. 

Lieut. Col. C. G. Rowcll, Chief of Division. 
Lieut. Geo. W. Perkins, AVm. D. Foster, P. Mclnerny, Mar- 
shals. 
Exj^-ess Wagons of Adams & Co. IlariMlcn & Co. and the Ameri- 
can Company. 
American Brass Band of Providence. 
Trades Associations in the followina; order : — 

A^ orkingmcn's Assembly, composed of delegates of the various 
Trades Unions. 
Cooper's Union No. 1, of Massachusetts. 
Boston Painter's Protective Union. 
Steam Boiler Makers' Union. 
Steam Boiler Makers from the Chief P^ngineer's Department in the 
Navy Yard. 
Sailmakers' Union Association. 
Tailors' Trade and Protective Society. 
Shipwright's Union. 
Journeymen Shipwrights' Association, of Boston and vicinity. 
Ship Fastener's Association of Cliarlestown. 
Journeymen Marble Cutters' Association. 
Brass Band from Fort Independence. 
Columbian Association of Siiipwrights and Caulkers. [Two 
ancient banners were carried in the ranks of this Society, one of 
which was carried at the funeral procession of Washington in 
1799.] 

Bookbinders' Association. 
Boston Printers' Union. 



72 MEMORIAL OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 



FIFTH DIVISION. 

U. S. Band from Galloupe's Island. 

Col. P. K. Guiney, Chief of Division. 

Lieut. Col. Norton, Capt. C. C Plunkctt, ilarslials. 

Military Associations in the following order : — 

Bunker Hill Soldiers' Association, of Charlestown. 

Massachusetts Volunteers in the ^Mexican AVar. 

Eleventh Eegiiuent Association. 

iS'iius' Battery Associates. 

First Massachusetts Veteran Volunteers. 

Lynn Veterans' fnion. 

^lassaehusetts Veterans' L^nion, of Boston. 

The rear of the Division was formed by a body of between two 
hundred and three hundred disabled soldiers in carriages, belong- 
ing mainly to the Boston Veterans' Union. 



SIXTH DIVISION. 

iletropulitan Band of Boston. 

Michael Doherty, Chief of Division. 

James Fitzgerald, Thos. Doherty, Marshals. 

Irish Associations in the following order : — 

American Hibernian Society. 

Boston United Laborers' Society. 

The Fenian Brotherhood, composed of the following circles. 

Boston Circle. 

South Boston Circle. 

East Boston Circle. 

Chelsea Circle. 



73 



PROCESSION AND SERA'ICES. 

:SIc^I;inus Ciivle of ISostoii. 

Wolf Tone Circle of Boston. 

Charlestown Circle. 

Somerville Circle. 

Emmet Circle, East Cambridge. 

Davis Circle, Lynn. 

Davis Circle, Cambridge. 

Taunton Circle. 

Brighton and Brookline Circle. 

AVatertown Circle. 

Stoneham Circle. 

South Reading Circle. 

Woburn Circle. 
West Cambridge Circle. 

Weymouth Circle. 
Corcoran Circle, Boston. 



SEVENTH DIVISION. 

Salem Brass Band. 
James J. Flynn, Chief of Division. 
Charles J. INIcCarthy, T. J. Leary, ^Marshals. 
Irish Associations in the following order : — 

Boston Roman Catholic Mutual Relief Society. 

St. John's Institute Band. 

St. John's Mutual Relief Society. 

Boston Shamrock Society. 

St. Vincent's Total Abstinence and Mutual Relief Society. 

Boston Irish American Benevolent Society. 

Hibernian Benevolent Society. 

Emmet Association, accompanied by Quimby's Drum Corps. 

Brighton Mutual Relief Society. 

10 



74 MEMORIAL OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 

United Association of American Hihernians. 

Brookline Hibernian Association. 

Boston Provident Laborers' Benevolent Association. 



EIGHTH DIVISION. 

jNIalden Brass Band. 

Ezekiel W. Pike, Chief of Division. 

David F. McGilvray, Maj. J. AV. :\IcDonakl, .Alar.-iials. 

INIiscelkaneous Societies in the following order : — 

Boston Scottish Club. 

Scots' Charitable Society. 

Mechanic Apprentices' Library Association. 

Charlestown Cornet Band. 

German St. Vincent's Society. 

Scandinavian Benevolent Relief Society. 

Xewton Brass Band. 

American Protestant Association. 

Independent Order of Redmen. 

At the hour designated, tiiedifterent divisions were put in motion 
over the following route : Through Cornhill, Dock Square, Market 
Square, south side, and South iMarket Street to Connnercial Street, 
through Commercial Street to Fleet Street, through Fleet Street to 
Hanover Street, up Hanover Street to Blackstone Street, through 
Blackstone Street, Haymarket Scjuare, and Merrimac Street to 
Causeway Street, through Causeway Street to Leverett Street, 
through Leverett Street to Green Street, through Green Street, 
Court Street, Tremont Row, and Tremont Street to Beacon Street, 
through Beacon Street to Berkeley Street, through Berkeley Street, 
to Commonwealth Avenue, through Commonwealth Avenue to Ar- 
lington Street, tlirough Arlington Street to Boylston Street, through 



PROCESSION AND SERVICES. 75 

Boylston Street to Park Square, tlirough Park Square and Pleasant 
Street to Tremont Street, through Tremont Street to Chester Square, 
tlirougli Chester Square arc! Chester Park to Washington Street, 
through AA^'ashingfou Street to Cornliill. 

The number of persons in the Procession was estimated at about 
twelve thousand ; and tlie time occupied in passing a given point, 
was one liour and forty minutes. On the arrival of the right of 
tiie eseort at Winter Street, soon after three o'clock, it was halted 
and formed in line until the carriages containing the City Govern- 
ment and in\itcd guests had proceeded up Winter Street to the 
entrance of Music Hall. 

The Hall was elaborately draped with the insignia of mourning. 
The face of the upper balcony, opposite the platform, bore the 
inscription — 

" Abraham Lincoln, 
" Born Feb. 12, 1809. Died April 1.'), 1865." 

And the side balconies — 

"Inaugurated President of the United States ]\Iarch 4, 1861." 
"Emancipation Proclamation Issued Jan. 1, ISGo." 

At the rear of the Hall were white banners suspended, with 
these inscriptions : — 

"It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task 
remaining before us : that from the honored dead we take increased 
devotion to the cause for which they have given the last full measure 
of devotion ; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not 
have died in vain; that the nation shall, under God, have a new 
birth of freedom ; and that the government by the people, for the 
people, shall not perish from the eartli." — L'mcohi's Address at 
Gettysburg, Nov. 1!>, ISfiS. 



76 MEMORIAL OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 

" Witli malice towards none, witli cliarity for all, with tinnness 
in the right, as God shall give us to see the right, lot us strive on to 
finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wound, to care 
for him who shall have borne the battle, and for iiis widow and 
orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting 
peace among ourselves and with all nations." — E.rlidtt j'/imi Presi- 
dent Lincoln's InavguraJ Aildrcss, INIarch 4, 18G."). 

The platform was occupied by invited guests, and bv members of 
the Handel and Haydn chorus, numbering about six hundred. 
In front of the organ there was a massive black pedestal, surmounted 
by an urn, which was covered by a profusion of flowers. 

At a quarter past four o'clock the ser\ices were opened with a 
voluntary on the organ, by ]\Ir. B. J. Lang. 

Kev. E. B. Webb offered the following prayer: — 

O Lord our God, assembled that wc may commemorate 
the virtues aud honor tlie memory of our Late beloved and 
martyred President, we turn to thee rejoicing that thou 
ever livest. Wc are like the grass of the field, — in the 
morning it flourisheth and groweth up ; in the evening 
it is cut down and withereth. But with thee there is 
no morning and no evening, — no beginning and no 
end. We change, die, and disappear, but thou art the 
same yesterday, to-day, and forever. Creatures of a 
moment, we rejoice in thine Eternity. And Ave thank 
thee for the knowledge which we have of thine attri- 
butes, character, and condescension to the sinful childi-en 
of men. Though thou dost by no means clear the 
guilty, to the penitent and believing thou dost show 
thyself merciful. forgi\ing iniquity, transgression, and 



PROCESSION AND SERVICES. 77 

sin. Do tlioii, Avho knowest the thoughts of all hearts, 
make lis truly penitent, and for the sake of Jesus C'lirist, 
thy Son, our Saviour, pardon all our neglect, omission, and 
failure, — pardon all our transgression of the conunands, 
precepts, and spirit of thy most holy law and gospel. 
And send the Holy Cihost, the Comforter, to make us 
more tenderly obedient, and more truly like Ilim who 
is our example as well as our Redeemer. 

We thank thee to-day, O thou who hast appointed the 
times and the bounds of the nations, for the rich broad 
land in which we dwell ; and for the strong free govern- 
ment under which we live. AVe thank thee for the 
memory of thy great goodness unto our fathers in the 
midst of persecutions, privations, perils, and Avars. We 
thank thee for the mercies shown us, their children, in 
these four long years of Rebellion, bloodshed, grief, and 
anguish, — for the spirit of our people and for the success 
of our arms. Truly thy judgments have been severe, 
and as just as severe ; but in the midst of wrath thou hast 
remembered mercy. By terrible things in righteousness 
hast thou answered us, O God of our Salvation. 

Especially now do avc thank thee for the President whom 
thou didst give us to preside over the Government in 
these perilous times, and to Ijring (nir affairs to a pros- 
perous issue. Thou art our Creator and Preserver, and 
thou art glorified in the life of all good men. We thank 
thee that thou didst turn the hearts of the people to this 
man again and again ; and that thou didst shield him 
against sickness, accident, and the assaults of the enemy, 
till his noble character was definitelv defined and dis- 



78 MEMORIAL OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 

tinctly brouglit out to the eyes aud the apprehensions of all 
men. We thank thee for that childlike, honest mind, — 
for that sweet, forgiving temper, — for that large, practical 
common sense, which together called forth the confidence 
of the people and bound them to him as with hooks of 
steel. AVe thank thee that though he did not live to 
enjoy the fruits of his toils and sacrifices, he did live long 
enough to see the glory of the coming day. And now 
that he is no more, help us Avitli a truly grateful and 
appreciative spirit to receive the inheritance of his virtues 
and his life. Help us also to hear the voice which speaks 
to us from his lips, bidding us trust thee in the darkest 
hours ; bidding us watch for the finger of thy Providence 
to determine our way ; bidding us to break evcrv voke, 
and to mingle forbearance with severity, aud mercy with 
justice in all our acts. Sanctify to this nation the bereave- 
ment which has come upon us, and cause the wrath and 
Avickedness of traitors and assassins to praise thee. May 
we learn not to trust in an arm of flesh, but in the Lord 
God Almighty. 

And now let thy blessing rest to-day and in the days to 
come upon all the departments of the Government which 
thou hast so graciously sustained and so greatly prospered, 
— regard thy servant, the President of these United States, 
spare his life and bestow upon him the spirit of counsel 
and of might; make him of quick understanding in the fear 
of the Lord. Guide him in judgment, and make his 
administration a reign of righteousness. Lay thy hand in 
benediction also upon his Cabinet, and lift them above all 
selfish ambition, party-strife, and prejudice, — upon our 



PROCESSION AXD SERVKES. 79 

Senators and Kcprcsentatives in Congress, and cnaljlc 
them to understand thy Avill, and to define and declare it 
in laws which the people shall recei\-e into their liearts 
and consciences, and obey. Behold also and bless the 
Chief Justice, and all his associates. Smile graciously 
upon the Lieutenant-General, and upon all sul)ordinate 
officers, — ujion our army and our navy. 

Bless, we beseech thee, all the people, and sanctify the 
loss and bereavement to those who mourn their dead, slain 
in battle, starved in hostile prisons, or Avorn out with 
disease and wounds in hospitals and shoAv, them that the 
prize gained for us and for our cliildren, and for tlie 
nations and generations to come, is worth the terril)le 
cost. 

And do thou, O God, forgive our enemies, defeated in 
their appeal to arms, conquered at last on every field. 
Have mercy upon the souls of such as shall be called to 
surrender their forfeited lives in expiation of their crimes 
and in satisfixction of justise. Grant repentance and par- 
don to all, O Lord, and make them henceforth loyal to 
thee and to the Government whose hand has ever been out- 
stretched with protection and blessing. Remember with 
thy favor the city in Avhich we dwell, — all its officers and 
enterprises. Make the mournful occasion which calls us 
together at this time one of lasting profit to every citizen 
and to the stranger within our gates. Help thy servant 
who is to address us, to speak the truth in love, and cause 
all the exercises of this day and the events of these years, 
— all the terrible scenes and sufferings through Avhich we 
have been made to pass, to contribute to the purifying of 



80 MEMORIAL OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 

our hearts, to the perfecting of the nation, and to the 
advancement of thy truth and glory throughout this whole 
land and the Avorld. Hear us, O Lord, in the name and 
for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord, ■whom thou dost 
always hear. 

And unto thy great and adorable name, Father, Son, 
and Holy Ghost, shall be ascribed all honor, dominion, 
and praise, now and evermore. Amen. 

The dirge, "Mourn ye Afflicted People," from Judas ilaccabeus, 
was then performed by the Handel and Haydn Society, after 
which Eev. Warren H. Cuclworth read the following selections 
from the Scriptures : — 

Xow the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy 
country, and from thy kindred, unto a land that I will shew thee: 
and I will bless thee ; and make thy name great ; and thou shalt 
be a blessing. And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse 
him that curseth thee : and in thee shall all families of the earth be 
blessed. — Gen. xii. 1-3. 

And Abram journeyed, going on still toward the South. — Gen. 
xii. !l. 

And the Lord said. Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the 
place where thou art, Northward, and Southward, and Eastward, 
and Westward ; for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I 
give it. In the length of it, and in the breadth of it, I will give it 
unto thee. — Gen. xiii. 14—17. 

Fear not, I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward. — 
Gen. XV. 1. 

And he believed in the Lord ; and he counted it to him for 
righteousness. — Gen. xv. 6. 



PROCESSION AND SKRVICES. 81 

And the Lord said unto him, I :un tlie Ahiiighty God : walk 
before me, and be tliou perfect. — Gen. xvii. 1. 

And it came to pass at that time, that the Chief Captain of liis 
host spake unto Abraham, saying, God is witli tliee in all that 
thou doest. — Gen. xxi. 22. 

And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and 
said, Abraham, Abraham ; by myself have I sworn, saith the 
Lord, that in blessing I will bless thee ; and thy seed shall possess 
the gate of his enemies, because thou hast obeyed my voice. — 
Gen. xxil. 11, lC-18. 

The steps of a good man are ordered Ijy the Lord, and He 
delighteth in his way. — Ps. xxxvii. 23. 

Thou, Lord, wilt bless the rigliteous ; with favor wilt thou 
compass him as with a shield. — Ps. v. 12. 

Some trust in chariots, and some in horses ; but we will remem- 
ber the name of the Lord our God. — Ps. xx. 7. 

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord : and the people 
whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance. — Ps. xxxiii. 12. 

Come, behold the works of the Lord, what desolations he hath 
made in the earth. He maketli wars to cease unto the end of the 
earth ; He breaketh the bow, and ciitteth the sjjcar in sunder; He 
burneth the chariot in the fire. — Ps. xlvi. 8, '.). 

God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this; that power 
belongeth unto God. — Ps. Ixii. 11. 

By terrible things in righteousness wilt thou answer us, O God 
of our salvation ; who art the confidence of all the ends of the 
earth and of them that are afar off upon the sea. — Ps. Ixv. 5. 

Thou, O God, hast proved us, thou hast tried us as silver is 
tried. Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads ; we went 
through fire and through water : but thou broughtest us out into 
a wealthy place. — Ps. Ixvi. 10-12. 

God bringeth out those which are bound with chains : but the 
11 



82 MEMORIAL OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 

rebellious dwell in a dry Iniid, and his enemies shall lick the dusl. 

— Ps. Ixviii. G: Ixxii. 9. 

O Lord God of hosts, thou hast scattered thine enemies with thy 
strong arm. The Xorth and the South, thou hast created them. 
Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne: mercy and 
truth shall go before thy face. — Ps. Ixxxix. 8, 10, 14. 

O give thanks unto the Lord, for he remembered his holy prom- 
ise, and Abraham his servant: and he brought forth his people 
witli joy and his chosen with gladness. And gathered them out of 
the lands, from the P^ast, and from the West, from the North, and 
from the South, and led them forth by the right way. For He 
hath broken the gates of brass, and cut the bars of iron in sunder. 

— Ps. ev. 1, 42, 43. Ps. cvii. 3, 7, IG. Let everything that 
hath breath praise the Lord. — Ps. cl. G. 

Tiiere is no wisdom, nor understanding, nor counsel against the 
Lord. — Prov. xxi. 30. The Lord killeth, and maketh alive: He 
bringeth down to the grave, and he bringeth up. He raiseth up 
the poor out of the dust, to set them among princes : for the pil- 
lars of the earth are the Lord's, and he hath set the world upon 
them. He will keep the feet of his saints; and the wicked shall 
be silent in darkness : for by strength shall no man prevail. — 1 
Sam. ii. 6, S, *J. 

Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth ? are not his 
days also like the days of an hireling? — Job vii. 1. 

As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away, so he that goeth 
down to the grave shall come up no more. He shall return no 
more to his house, neither shall his place know him any more. — 
Job vii. 9, 10. 

There is no man that hath power over the spirit, to retain the 
spirit ; neither hath he power in the day of death : and there is no 
discharge in tiiat war. — Eccles. viii. 8. 

Mark the perfect man and behold the upright, for the end of that 
man is peace. — Ps. xxxvii. 37. 



PROCESSION AND SERVICES 83 

Precious in the sight of the Lord is tlio death of liis saints. — Ps. 
cxvi. 15. 

A good name is better than precious ointment ; and the day of 
death than the day of one's birth. — Eccles. vii. 1. 

Blessed are they tliat mourn : for they .shall be comforted. — 
Matt. V. 4. 

Let not your heart be troubled. I will not leave you comfort- 
less. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you. Let not 
your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. — John xiv. 1 
18, 27. In the world ye shall have tribulation : but be of good 
cheer; I have overcome the world. — John xvi. 33. I am the 
resurrection and the life. — John xi. 2.5. 

"Whether we live, we live unto the Lord ; and whether we die, 
we die unto the Lord ; whether we live, therefore, or die, we are 
the Lord's. — Rom. xiv. 8. 

Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the 
evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say 
I have no pleasure in them : when the keepers of the house shall 
tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grass- 
hopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail ; because man goeth 
to his long home and the mourners go about the streets : or ever 
the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the 
pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the 
cistern. Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was : and 
the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. — Eccles. xiii. 1, 3, 
5, 6, 7. 

As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. — 
1 Cor. XV. 22. 

I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor 
prinicipalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 
nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to sep- 
arate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. 
— Rom. viii. 38, 39. 



8-i MEMORIAL OF PRESIDEIST LINCOLIN. 

For we know that, if our eartlily liouse of tliis tabernacle were 
dissolved we have <i building of God, a house not made with hands, 
eternal in the heavens. — 2 Cor. v. 1. 

And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion 
with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads : they shall obtain 
joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. — Isa. 
XXX. 10. 

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which 
according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a 
lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from tiie dead, to 
an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not 
away. — 1 Pet. i. 3, 4. 

The choral " Cast thy Burdens upon the Lord " was sung. 

His Honor the Mayor then introduced the Hon. Charles Sum- 
ner, who delivered a Eulogy. At tlie conclusion, the followino- 
hynm, written by Dr. O. W. Holmes, was sung : — 

O Thou of soul and sense and breath. 

The ever present Giver, 
Unto Thy mighty Angel, Death, 

All flesh Thou dost deliver ; 
What most we cherish we resign, 
For life and death alike are Thine, 

Who reignest Lord fore^'er ! 

Our hearts lie buried in tlie dust 

With Him, so true and tender. 
The patriot's stay, the people's trust, 

The shield of the offender ; 
Yet every murmuring voice is still, 
As, bowing to Thy soverign will. 

Our best loved we surrender. 



PROCESSION AND SERVICES. 85 

Dear Lord, with pitying eye behold 

This martyr generation, 
Wliich Tliou, througii trials manifold, 

Art shewing Thy salvation ! 
O let the blood by murder spilt 
Wash out Thy stricken children's guilt, 

And sanctify our nation ! 

Be thou Tiiy orphaned Israel's friend. 

Forsake Thy people never, 
In One our broken Many blend, 

That none again may sever ! 
Hear us, O Father, while we raise 
With trembling lips our song of praise. 

And bless Thy name forever ! 

The benediction was pronounced by Kev. L. A. Grimes. 



MR. SUMNER'S EULOGY. 



CITY OF BOSTON 



In Common Council, June 2, 1865. 

Resolved, Tliat the thanks of tlie City Council be presented to 
Hon. Charles Sumner, for tlie highly eloquent, and truly 
patriotic Eulogy, delivered by him, on the Life and Services of 
Abraham Lincoln, late President of tlie United States; — and 
tiiat he be requested to furnish a copy of said Eulogy for publica- 
tion. 

Sent up for concurrence. 

W^L B. FOWLE, Prcshlait. 

Ill Board of Aldermen, June 6, 18(35. 
Concurred. 

G. W. MESSINGER, Chalntwn. 

Ajiproved June 7, 1865. 

F. W. LINCOLX, Jr. Mayor. 



EULOGY. 



In the universe of God there are no accidents. From 
the fall of a sparrow to the fall of an empire, or the 
sweep of a planet, all is according to Divine Providence, 
whose laws arc everlasting. It was no accident wliich 
gave to his country the patriot whom we now honor. It 
was no accident which snatched this patriot, so suddenly 
and so cruelly, from his suhlime duties. Death is as 
little of an accident as life. Perliaps never in history has 
this Providence heen more conspicuous than in that recent 
procession of events, where the final triumph was wrapt 
in the gloom of tragedy. It will be our duty to catch the 
moral of this stupendous drama. 

For the second time in our annals, the country has 
been summoned by the President to unite, on an appoint- 
ed day, in commemorating the life and character of 
the dead. The first was on the death of George Wash- 
ington, when, as now, a day Avas set apart for simul- 
taneous eulogy throughout the laud, and cities, towns, 
and villages all vied in tribute. More than half a century 
has passed since this early observance in memory of the 



92 MEMORIAL OF PRESIDENT LI>'COLN. 

Father of his country, and now it is repeated in memory 
of Abraham Lincoln. 

Thus are Washington and Lincoln associated in the 
grandeur of their obsequies. But this association is not 
accidental. It is from the nature of things, and be- 
cause the part Avhich Lincohi was called to perform 
resembled in character the part which was performed by 
Washington. The work left undone by Washington was 
continued by Lincoln. Kindred in service, kindred in 
patriotism, each was naturally surrounded at death by 
kindred homage. One sleeps in the East, and the other 
sleeps in the West ; and thus, in death, as in life, one 
is the complement of the other. 

The two might be compared after the manner of Plu- 
tarch ; but it will be enough for the present if we glance 
only at certain points of resemblance and of contrast, so 
as to recall the part which each performed. 

Each was at the head of the Republic during a period 
of surpassing trial ; and each thought only of the public 
good, simply, purely, constantly, so that single-hearted 
devotion to country will always find a synonyme in their 
names. Each was the national chief during a time of 
successful war. Each was the representative of his coun- 
try at a great epoch of history. But here, perhaps, the 
resemblance ends and the contrast begins. Unlike in 
origin, conversation, and character, they were unlike also 
in the ideas which they served, except as each was 
the servant of his country. The war conducted by 
Washington was unlike the war conducted by Lincoln — 
as the peace which crowned the arms of the one was 



MR. summer's eulogy. 93 

unlike the peace wliich began to smile upon the other. 
The two wars did not differ in the scale of operations, 
and in the tramp of mustered hosts, more than in the 
ideas involved. The first was for National Indepen- 
dence ; the second was to make the Republic one and in- 
divisible, on the indestructible foundations of Liberty and 
Equality. The first only cut the connection with the 
mother country, and opened the way to the duties and 
advantages of Popular Government. The sccotitl iriJI have 
failed iiiiless it performs all the original promises of that 
Declaration which our fathers took upon their lips when theif 
became a Nation. In the relation of cause and effect the 
first was the natural precursor and herald of the second. 
National Independence was the first epoch in our history, 
and such was its importance tliat Tjafayette boasted to the 
First Consul of France that, though its battles were but 
skirmishes, they decided the fate of the world. 

The Declaration of our fathers, which was entitled 
simply " the unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen 
United States of America," is known familiarly as the 
Declaration of Independence, because the remarkable 
words with which it concludes made independence the 
absorbing idea, to which all else was tributary. Thus did 
the representatives of the United States of America in 
General Congress assembled, solemnly publish and 
declare " that these United C'olonies are, and of right 
ought to be, free and independent States ; that they 
are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and 
that all political connection between them and the State of 
Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved . . . 



94 MEMORIAL OF PRESIDEJsT LINCOLN. 

and for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reli- 
ance in the protectioir of Divine Providence, we mu- 
tually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and 
our sacred honor." To sustain this mutual pledge Wash- 
ington drew his sword, and led the national armies, until 
at last, by the Treaty of Peace in 1783, Independence was 
acknowledged. 

Had the Declaration been confined to this pledge, it 
would have been less important than it was. Much as it 
might have been to us, it would have been less of a 
warning and trumpet-note to the world. There were two 
other pledges which it made. One was proclaimed in the 
designation '■ United States of America," which it adopted 
as the national name, and the other was proclaimed in 
those great words, fit for the baptismal vows of a Republic : 
" We hold these truths to be self-evident ; that all men 
are created equal ; that they are endowed by their Creator 
Avith certain inalienable riglits ; that among these are 
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness ; that to secure 
these rights governments are instituted among men, deriv- 
ing their just powers from the consent of the ffoveriied." 
By the sword of Washington Independence was secured ; 
but the Unity of the Hepublic and the principles of the 
Declaration were left exposed to c[uestion. From that 
day to this, through various chances, they have been 
questioned, and openly dishonored, — until at last the He- 
public was constrained to take up arms in their defence. 
And yet, siirce enmity to the Union proceeded entirely 
from enmity to the great ideas of the Declaration, history 
must record that the question of the Union itself was 



MR. Sumner's eulogy. 95 

absorbed in the grander conflict to npliold those primal 
trnths which our fathers had solemnly proclaimed. 

Such are these two great wars in which these two 
chiefs bore each his part. Wasliington fought for National 
Independence and triumphed, — making his country an 
example to mankind. Lincoln drew his reluctant sword 
to save those great ideas, essential to the life and character 
of the Republic, which unhappily the sword of Washing- 
ton had failed to put beyond the reach of assault. 

It was by no accident that these two great men became 
the representatives of their country at these two different 
epochs, so alike in peril, and yet so unlike in the princi- 
ples involved. Washington was the natural representa- 
tive of National Independence. He might also have 
represented national Unity, had this principle been chal- 
lenged to bloody battle during his life ; for nothing was 
nearer his heart than the consolidation of our Union, 
which, in his letter to Congress transmitting the Consti- 
tution, he declared to be " the greatest interest of every 
true American." Then again, in a remarkable letter to 
John Jay, he plainly said that he did not conceive " we 
can exist long as a nation without lodging somewhere 
a power which will pervade the Union in as energetic 
a manner as the authority of the State governments 
extends over the several States." But another person 
was needed of different birth and simpler life to rep- 
resent the ideas which were now assailed. 

Washington was of a family which may be traced in 
English heraldry. Some of his ancestors sleep in close 
companionship with the noble name of Spencer. By 



96 MEMORIAL OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 

iuheritance and marriage he was rich in lands, and, let it 
be said in I'espectful sorrow, rich also in slaves, so far as 
slaves breed riches rather than curses. At the age of 
fourteen he refused a commission as a midshipman in the 
British Navy. At the age of nineteen he was military 
inspector with the rank of major. At the age of twenty- 
one he Avas selected by the British Governor of Virginia 
as Commissioner to the French posts. At the age of 
twenty-two he was colonel of a regiment, and was thanked 
by the House of Burgesses in Virginia. Early in life he 
became an observer of form and ceremony. Always 
strictly just, according to prevailing principles, and order- 
ing at his death the emancipation of his slaves, he was 
a general and a statesman rather tlian a philanthropist ; 
nor did he seem to be inspired, beyond the duties of patri- 
otism, to any active sympathy with Human Rights. In 
the ample record of what he wrote or said there is no word 
of adhesion to the great ideas of the Declaration. Such 
an origin — such an early life — such opportunities — such 
a condition — such a character, were all in contrast with 
the origin, the early life, the opportunities, the condition, 
and the character of him whom we commemorate to-day. 

Abraham Lincoln was born, and until he became Presi- 
dent, always lived in a part of the country which at the 
period of the Declaration of Independence was a savage 
Avilderness. Strange but happy Providence, that a voice 
from that savage wilderness, now fertile in men, was 
inspired to uphold the pledges and promises of the 
Declaration ! The Unity of the Republic on the inde- 



MR. sumner"s eulogy. 97 

structible foundation of Liberty and Equality was vindi- 
cated by the citizen of a community, which had no exist- 
ence wlien the Republic was formed. 

His family may be traced to a Quaker stock in Penn- 
sylvania, but it removed first to Virginia, and then, as 
early as 1780, to the wilds of Kentucky, which at that 
time was only an outlying territory belonging to Virginia. 
His grandfather and father both lived in peril from 
the Indians, and the former perished by their hands. 
The future President was born in a log-house. His 
mother could read but not write. His father could do 
neither, except so far as to sign liis name rudely, like 
a noble of Charlemagne. Trial, privation, and labor 
entered into his early life. Only at seven years of age 
was he able to go to school for a very brief period, carry- 
ing with him Dil worth's Spelling Book, which was one of 
the three volumes that formed the family library. Shortly 
afterwards his father turned his back upon that Slavery 
which disfigured Kentucky, and placing his poor eftects 
on a raft which his son had helped him construct, set his 
foce towards Indiana, which was guarded against Slavery 
by the famous Ordinance for the Northwestern Terri- 
tory. In this painful journey the son, who was only 
eight years old, bore his share of the burdens. On reach- 
ing the chosen home in a land of Liberty, the son aided 
the father in building the cabin, composed of logs fast- 
ened together by notches, and filled in with nuul, where 
for twelve years afterwards he grew in character and in 
knowledge, as in stature, learning to write as well as to 
read, and especially enjoying Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, 

13 



98 MEMORIAL OF TRESIDENT LI>'COLN. 

.-Esop's Fables, Weems's Life of AVushingtou, and the Life 
of Clay. At the age of twelve he lost his mother. At the 
age of nineteen he became a hived hand at $10 a month 
on a flatboat, laden with stores for the plantations on the 
Mississippi, and in this way he floated down that lordly 
river to New Orleans, little dreaming that only a few 
years later, iron-clad navies would float on that same 
lordly river at his command. Here also he was a learner. 
From the slaves which he saw on the banks he took an 
early lesson of Liberty, which had new charms in contrast 
with Slavery. 

In 1830, the father removed to Illinois, transporting his 
effects in wagons drawn by oxen, and the future President, 
who was then twenty-one years of age, drove one of the 
teams. Another cabin was built in primitive rudeness, 
and the future President split the rails for the fence to 
enclose the lot. These rails have become classical in our 
history, and the name of rail-splitter has been more than 
the degree of a college. Not that the splitter of rails is 
especially meritorious, but because the people are proud 
to trace aspiring talent to humble beginnings, and because 
they found in this tribute a new opportunity of vindicating 
the dignity of free labor, and of repelling the insolent 
pretensions of Slavery. 

His youth was now spent, and at the age of twenty-one, 
he left his father's house to begin the world for himself. A 
small bundle, a laughing face, and an honest heart ; these 
M'cre his simple possessions, together with that unconscious 
character and intelligence, which his country afterwards 
learned to prize. In the long history of " worth de- 



MR. summer's eulogy. 99 

pressed," there is no instance of such a contrast hctween 
the depression and the triumph — unless, perhaps, his 
successor as President may share with him this distiuctiou. 
No Academy, no University, no Ahna Mater of science or 
learning had nourished him. No government had taken 
him by the hand and given to him the gift of op[)ortunity. 
No inheritance of land or money had fallen to him. No 
friend stood by his side. He was alone in poverty ; and 
yet not all alone. There was God above, who watches all, 
and does not desert the lowly. Plain in person, life, and 
manners, and knowing nothing of form or ceremony, with 
a village schoolmaster for six months as his only teacher, 
he had grown up in companionship with the people, with 
nature, with trees, with the fruitful corn, and with the 
stars. While yet a child, his father had borne him away 
from a soil wasted by Slavery, and he was now the citizen 
of a Free State, where Free Labor had been placed under 
the safeguard of irreversible compact and fundamental 
law. And thus he took leave of youth, happy at least 
that lie could go forth under the day-star of Liberty. 

The hardships of youth were still continued in early 
manhood. He labored as a hired hand on a farm, and 
then a second time he measured the winding Mississippi 
to New Orleans in a flatboat. At the call of the Gov- 
ernor of Illinois for troops against the Lidian Chief Black 
Hawk, he sprang forward with patriotic ardor, and Avas 
the first to enlist at the recruiting station in his neighbor- 
hood. The choice of his associates made him captain. 
After the war he became a surveyor, and down to his 
death retained a practical and scientific knowledge of this 



100 MEMORIAL OF PKESIDE^sT LINCOLN. 

business. In 183J:, he was elected to the Legislature of 
Illinois, and two years later he was admitted to the practice 
of the law. He was now twenty-seven years old, and, under 
the benignant influence of Republican Institutions, he had 
already entered upon the double career of a lawyer and a 
legislator, with the gates of the mysterious Future slowly 
opening before him. 

How well he served in these two characters I pause 
not to tell. It is enough if I exhibit the stages of 
his advance, that you may understand how he became 
the representative of his country at so grand a moment 
of history. It is needless to say that his opportunities 
of study as a lawyer must have been small, but he 
was industrious in each individual case, and thus daily 
added to his stores of professional experience. Faithful 
in all things, most conscientious in his conduct at the 
bar, so that he could not be unfair to the other side, 
and admirably sensitive to the behests of justice, so that 
he could not argue on the wrong side, he acquired 
a name for honesty, which, beginning Avith the com- 
munity in which lie lived, became proverbial through- 
out his State ; while his genial, mirthful, overflowing 
nature, apt at anecdote and story, made him a favor- 
ite companion Avhere he was personally known. His 
opinions on public questions were early fixed, under the 
example and teachings of Henry Clay, and he never 
departed from them, though constantly tempted, or 
pressed by local majorities, speaking in the name of 
a false democracy. It is interesting to know that thus 
early he espoused those two ideas, which entered so 



MR. summer's eulogy. 101 

largely into the terrible responsibilities of his latter 
years, — I mean the Unity of the Eepnblic, and the 
supreme value of Liberty. lie did not believe that 
a State had a right, at its own mad will, to brealc up 
this Union. As a reader of congressional speeches, and 
a student of what was said by the political teachers 
of that day, he was no stranger to those marvellous 
efforts of Daniel Webster, wlien in reply to the treas- 
onable pretensions of nullification, that great orator of 
Massachusetts asserted tlie indestructibility of tlie Union, 
and the folly of those who would assail it. On the 
subject of Slavery, he drew from the experience of his 
own family and the warnings of his own conscience. 
It was natural, therefore, that one of his earliest acts 
in the legislature of Illinois should be a protest in the 
name of Liberty. 

At a later day, he became a representative in Congress 
for a single term, beginning in December 184:7, being 
the only Whig representative from Illinois. His speeches 
during this brief period have many of the characteristics 
of his later productions. They are argumentative, logical, 
and spirited, with that quaint humor and sinewy senten- 
tiousness which belonged to his nature. His votes were 
constant against Slavery. For the Wilmot Proviso, he had 
voted, according to his own statement, " in one way and 
another about forty times." His vote is recorded against 
the pretence that slaves were property under the constitu- 
tion. From Congress he again passed to his profession. 
The day was at hand, when all his powers, enlarged by 
experience and quickened to their highest activity, would 



102 MEMORIAL OF PRESIDENT LINCOIN. 

be needed to repel that haughty domiuation which was 
already undermining the Repubhc. 

The iirst field of conflict was in his own State, with no 
less an antagonist than Stephen A. Douglas, unhapj)ily at 
that time in alliance with the Slave Power. The too 
famous Kansas and Nebraska Bill, introduced by him 
into the Senate, assumed to set aside the venerable safe- 
guard of freedom in the territory west of Missouri, under 
the pretence of allowing the inhabitants " to vote Slavery 
up or to vote it down " according to their pleasure, and 
this barbarous privilege was called by the fancy name 
of Popular Sovereignty. The future President did not 
hesitate to denounce this most baleful measure in a series 
of popular addresses, where truth, sentiment, humor, and 
argument all were blended. As the conflict continued, he 
was brought forward as a candidate for the Senate against 
its able author. The debate that ensued is one of the 
most memorable in our political history, whether we 
consider the principles involved, or the way in which it 
was conducted. 

It commenced with a close, well-woven speech from 
the Republican champion, in which he used words which 
showed his insight into the actual condition of things, 
as follows : " A house divided against itself cannot stand. 
I believe this Government cannot endure permanently 
half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union 
to be dissolved, — I do not expect the house to fall, — 
but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will 
become all one thing, or all the other." Only a few 
days before his death, when I asked him if at the time 



MR. sumxer's eulogy. 103 

he had any doubt about this remark, he replied, " Not 
in the least. It was clearly true, ami time has justified 
me." With like plainness he exposed the Douglas pre- 
tence of Popular Sovereignty as meaning simply " that 
if any one man shall choose to enslave another, no 
third man shall be allowed to object," and he an- 
nounced his belief in " the existence of a conspiracy 
to perpetuate and nationalize Slavery," of which the 
Kansas and Nebraska Bill, and the Dred Scott decision 
were essential parts. Such was the character of this 
debate at the beginning, and so it continued on the 
lips of our champion to the end. 

But the inevitable topic to which he returned 
with the most frequency, and to which he clung with 
all the grasp of his soul, was the practlatl chdractcr 
of the Dechirntion of Independence in announcing the 
Liberty and EqnaJiti/ of all men. These were no idle 
words, but substantial truth, binding on the conscience 
of mankind. I know not if this grand pertinacity has 
been noticed before ; but I deem it my duty to say, 
that to my mind it is by far the most important incident 
of that controversy, and perhaps the most interesting 
in the biography of the speaker. Nothing previous to 
his nomination for the Presidency is comparable to it. 
Plainly his whole subsequent career took its impulse 
and character from that championship. And here too 
is our first debt of gratitude. The words which he then 
uttered live after him, and nobody can hear how he 
then battled without feeling a new motive to fidelity in 
the cause of Human lliijlits. 



104 MEMORIAL OF TRESIDENT LINCOLN. 

As early as 185-t, in a speech at Peoria, against the 
Kansas and Nebraska Bill, after denouncing Slavery as a 
" monstrous injustice," which enables the enemies of free 
institutions to taunt us as hypocrites, and causes the real 
friends of freedom to doubt our sincerity, he complains 
especially that " it forces so many really good men 
amongst ourselves into an open ivar with the verij fumJa- 
inentiil principles of civil lihertjj, criticising the Declaration 
of Independence." Thus, according to him, was criticism 
of the Declaration of Independence the climax of infidel- 
ity as a citizen. 

Mr. Douglas opened the debate on his side July 9, 
1858, at Chicago, by a speech, in which he said, among 
other tilings, " I am opposed to negro equality. I repeat, 
that this Nation is a white people. I am opposed to tak- 
ing any step that recognizes the negro man or the Indian 
as the equal of the white man. I am opposed to giving 
him a voice in the administration of the Government." 
Thus was the case stated on the side of Slavery. 

To this speech the Republican candidate replied the 
next evening, and he did not forget his championship of 
the Declaration. After quoting the words " w-e hold 
these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created 
equal," he proceeds to say : — 

" Tliat is tlie electric cord in the Declai-ation that links tlie 
hearts of patriotic and liberty-loving men together, that will link 
those patriotic and liberty-loving men together as long as the love 
of freedom exists in the minds of men throughout the world. . . . 
I should like to know if taking this old Declaration of Indepen- 
dence, which declares that all men are equal upon principle, and 



MR. Sumner's eulogy. 105 

making exceptions, where will it. stop? If one ni.in says it does 
not mean the negro, wliy not another .say it docs not mean some 
other man? If that Declaration is not tlic truth, let us get the 
Statute-book in which we find it and tear it out ! "Who is so bold 
as to do it? If it is not true, let us tear it out [cries of " no, 
no "] ; let us slick to it then ; ht us stand JirmJij hij it then." 

Noble words ! wortliy of perpetual memory. And he 
finished his speech on this occasion by saying : — 

" I leave you, hoping that the lamp of Liberty will burn in 
your bosoms until there shall no longer be a doubt that all men 
are created free and equal." 

He has left ns now, and for the last time, and I catch 
the closinii^ benediction of that speech, ah-eady sounding 
through the ages, like a choral harmony. 

The debate continued from place to place in Illinois. 
At Bloomington, July 16, 1858, Mr. Douglas again de- 
nied that colored persons could be citizens, and then 
broke forth upon the champion of the Declaration. 

" I will not quarrel with Jlr. Lincoln for his views on that 
subject. I have no doubt he is conscientious in them. I have not 
the slightest idea but that he conscientiously believes that a negro 
ought to enjoy and exercise all the rights and privileges given to 
white men ; but I do not agree with him. / hdievc that this Gf/r- 
ernmcnt of ours was founded un the white basis. I believe that it was 
established by white men. I do not believe that it was the design 
of the signers of the Declaration of Independence or the franiers 
of the Constitution to include negroes, Indians, or other inferior 
races, with white men as citizens. . . . lie ivanis them to 
vote. lam opposed to it. If theij had a vote, I reckon they would 
all vote for him in preference to me, entertaining the views I do .' " 
U 



106 MEMORIAL OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 

Then again, in another speech at Springfield, the next 
day, Mr. Donghis repeated his denial that the colored 
man was embraced by the Declaration, and thus argued 
for the exclusion : — 

" l\emeniber that at tlie time tlie Declaration was put forth, 
everyone of the thirteen colonies were slavehokling colonies, — 
every man who signed that Declaration represented slaveholding 
constitutents. Did these signers mean by that act to charge them- 
selves and all their constitutents with having violated the law of 
God in holding the negro in an inferior condition to the white 
man? And yet, if tlie\' included negroes in that term, they were 
bound, as conscientious men, that day and that hour, not only to 
have abolished Slavery throughout the land, hut to have conferred 
jio/'/iail rig/ifs and privileges on lite negro and elevated liini to an 
cijiiiili/i/ n-ith the w/iilf man. . . . The Declaration of Inde- 
pendence only included the white peo[>Ie of the United States." 

On the same evening, at Springfield, the champion of 
the Declaration, while admitting that negroes are not 
" our equals in color," thus again spoke for the compre- 
hensive humanity of the Declaration : — 

" I adhere to the Declaration. If Judge Douglas and his J'rieiids 
are not willing to stand hij it, let them come vp and amend, it. Let 
them male it read that all men are created equal except negroes. 
Let us have it decided, whether the Declaration of Independence, 
in this blessed year of 1858, shall l)c tluis amended. In his con- 
struction of the Declaration last year, he said it only meant that 
Americans in America were equal to Englishmen in England. 
Then, when I pointed out to him that by that rule he excludes the 
Germans, the Irish, the Portuguese, and all the other people who 
have come among us since the Revolution, he reconstructs his con- 



MR. Sumner's eulogy. 107 

struction. In liis last speech he tells us it meant Europeans. I 
press him a little further, and ask him if it meant to include 
tlie Russians in Asia ! Or does he mean to exclude that vast 
population from the principles of the Declaration ? I expect ere- 
long he will introduce another amendment to his definition. He is 
not at all particular, ll nunj (Iniic ir/iite men Jutni, hut il must not 
lift negroes tqi." 

Words like these must be gratefully remembered. 
They make the Declaration, wliat the fathers intended it, 
no mean proclamation of oligarchic egotism, but a charter 
and freehold for all mankind. 

Again, at Ottawa, August 21, liSoS, Mr. Douglas, still 
wisliing to exclude the colored men from the Declaration, 
exclaimed as follows : — 

" I l)cheve this Government was made on the white basis. I 
believe it was made by white men, for the benefit of white men and 
their posterity forever." 

The Republican champion again took up the strain, 
as follows : — 

" Henry Clay once said of a class of men who would repress all 
tendencies to liberty and ultimate emancipation, that they must, 
if they would do this, go I)ack to the era of our independence, and 
nuizzle the cannon, which thunders its annual joyous return; they 
must blow out the moral lights around us ; they must penetrate the 
human soul, and eradicate there the love of liberty : and then, and 
not till then, can they perpetuate Slavery in this country ! To my 
thinking, Judge Douglas is, by liis example and vast intluence, 
doing that very thing in this community, when he says that the 
negro has nothing in the Declaration of Independence." 



108 MEMORIAL OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 

At Joiiesboro, September 15, 1858, Mr. Douglas made 
another effort against the rights of the colored race, in 
the course of Avhich he said : — 

"I am aware tlint all the abolition lecturers that you find 
travelling through the country, are in the haliit of reading the 
Declaration of Independence to prove that all men were created 
equal and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, 
among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, ilr. 
Lincoln is very much in the habit of following in the track of Love- 
joy in this particular, by reading that part of the Declaration 
of Independence, to prove that the negro was endowed by the 
Almighty with the inalienable right of equality with white men. 
Now, I say to you, my fellow-citizens, that, in my opinion, the 
signers of the Declaration had no reference to the negro whatever, 
M'hen tiiey declared all men to be created equal." 

At Galesborough, October 7, 1858, his opponent thus 
again upheld the Declaration ; — 

" The Judge has alluded to the Declaration of Independence, 
and insisted that negroes are not included in that Declaration ; and 
that it is a slander upon the framers of that instrument, to suppose 
that negroes were meant therein ; and he asks you, is it possible 
to believe that Mr. Jefferson, who penned the immortal paper, 
could have supposed himself applying the language of that instru- 
ment to the negro race, and yet held a jiortion of that race in 
slavery ? Would he not at once have freed them ? I only have 
to remark upon this part of the Judge's speech, that I believe the 
entire record of the world, from the date of the Declaration of 
Independence up to within three years ago, may be searched in 
vain for one single affirmation from one single man, that the 



MR. sumner's eulogy. 109 

negro was not incliidcd in the Declaration. And I will remind 
Judge Douglas and this audience, that while Mr. Jefferson was 
the owner of slaves, as undoubtedly he was, in speaking upon this 
very subject, he used the strong language, that " he trembled for 
his country when he remembered that God was just." 

And at Alton, October 15, 1858, he renewed this same 
testimony : — 

" I assert that Judge Douglas and all his friends may search the 
whole record of the country, and it will I)e a matter of great aston- 
ishment to me if they shall be able to find that one liiunan being 
three years ago had ever uttered the astounding sentiment tliat the 
term "all men" in the Declaration did not include the negro. 
Do not let me be misunderstood. I know that more than three 
years ago, there were men who, finding this assertion constantly 
in the way of their schemes to bring about the ascendency and 
perpetuation of Slavery, denied the truth of it. I know that Mr. 
Calhoun, and all the politicians of his school, denied the truth of 
the Declaration, ending at last in that shameful declaration of Petit 
of Indiana, upon the floor of the United States Senate, that the 
Declaration was, in that respect, a " self-evident lie" rather than a 
self-evident truth. But I say, with a perfect knowledge of all this 
hawking at the Declaration without directly attacking it, that three 
years ago there never had lived a man who had ventured to assail 
it in the sncalclng tvaij of I'l'ctending to hrJiccc it, and tlicii asserting 
thai it did not include the negro." 

Lifted by the cause in which he was engaged, he 
appealed to his fellow-countrymen in tones of pathetic 
eloquence : — 

"Think nothing of me; take no thought for the political fate 



110 MEMORIAL OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 

of any man wliatifoever, but cume hack to the truths that are in 
the Declaration of Inilopendence. You may do anything with me 
you clioose if you will hut heed these sacred principles. You may 
not only defeat nie for the Senate, hut you mmj tnle me a ml put me 
to dcatli. While pretending no indifference to earthly honors, I do 
clmn ii' li( 11 mated in this contest by something higher than an 
anxiety for office. I charge you to drop cyery paltry, insignificant 
thought for any man's success. It is nothing. I am nothing. 
Judge Douglas is nothing. But do nut destroy that immortal emblem 
(if kumauUij — the Declaralhm of Independence.^'' 

I'hiis, at that early day, before war had overshadowed 
the land, was he ready for the sacrifice. " Take me and 
put me to death," said he, "but do not destroy that 
immortal emblem of humanity — the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence." He has been put to death by the enemies of 
the Declaration. But though dead, he will continue to 
guard that great title-deed of the human race. 

The debate ended. An immense vote was cast. There 
Avere 126,084 votes for the republican candidates, 121,940 
for the Douglas candidates, and .5,091 for the Lecompton 
candidates, another class of democrats ; but the support- 
ers of ^Ir. Douglas had a majority of eight on joint ballot 
in the legislature, and he was reelected to the Senate. 

Again returned to his profession, our champion still 
cherished the Declaration. In answer to the Repub- 
licans of Boston, who had invited him to unite with 
them in the celebration of the birthday of Thomas 
Jefferson, he wrote a letter, under date of April, 1859, 
which is a gem in political literature, where lie again 
asserted the supremacy of those truths for which he 



MR Sumner's eulogy. Ill 

had battled so -well. In him tlic West thus spoke to 
the East, pleading for Human Rights, as declared by our 
Fathers : — 

" But soberly, it is now no child's pla}' to save the principles 
of Jefferson from total overthrow in this nation. 

" One would state with great confidence that he coidd convince 
any sane child that the simpler propositions of Euclid are true ; 
but, nevertheless, he would fail with one who should deny the 
definitions and axioms. The principles of Jefferson are the defi- 
nitions and axioms of free society. And yet thej' are denied and 
evaded with no small show of success. One dashingly calls them 
' glittering generalities.' Another bluntly styles them ' self-evident 
lies.' And others insidiously argue that they apjjly only to ' su- 
perior races.' 

" These expressions, differing in form, are identical in object 
and effect — the supplanting the principles of free government, 
and restoring those of classification, caste, and legitimacy. They 
would delight a convocation of crowned heads plotting against 
the people. They arc the vanguard, the sappers and miners of 
returning despotism. We must repulse them, or they will sub- 
jugate us. 

"This is a world of compensation; and he who would /^c no 
slave must consent to lidve no slave. Those who deny freedom 
to others deseive it not for themselves; and, under a just God, 
cannot long retain it. 

" All honor to Jefferson — the man who, in the concrete ]»res- 
sure of a struggle for national independence by a single people, 
had the coolness, forecast, and capacity to introduce into a merely 
revolutionai-y document an abstract truth, ajrpltcahic to all men and 
all ti?ncs, and so to embalm it there, that to-day, and in all com- 
ing days, it shall be a rebuke and a stumbling-block to the har- 
bingers of reappearing tyranny and oppression ! " 



112 MEMORIAL OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 

In the winter of next year the "Western chiimpiou ap- 
peared at New York ; and, in a remarkable address at the 
Cooper Institute, February 27, 1860, vindicated the policy 
of the Fathers of the Republic and the principles of the 
Republican party. After showing with curious skill and 
minuteness the original understanding on the power of 
Congress over Slavery in the territories, he demonstrated 
that the Republican party was not in any just sense sec- 
tional ; and he proceeded to expose the perils from the 
pretensions of slave-masters, who, not content with requir- 
ing that " we must arrest and return their slaves with 
greedy pleasure," insisted that the Constitution must be 
so interpreted as to uphold the idea of property in man. 
The whole address was in a subdued and argumentative 
style, while each sentence was like a driven nail, with a 
concluding rally that was a bugle-call to the lovers of 
right. " Let us have faith," said he, " that riijht makes 
mi(/h(, and in that faith, let us to the end dare to do 
our duty as we understand it." 

A few mouths later this champion of the right, who 
would not see the colored man shut out from the promises 
of the Declaration of Independence, and who insisted 
upon the exclusion of Slavery from the territories, after 
summoning his countrymen to dare to do their duty, was 
nominated by a great political party as their candidate 
for President of the United States. Local considerations, 
securing to him the support of certain States beyond any 
other candidate, exercised a final influence in deter- 
mining his selection ; but it is easy to see how, from 



MR. summer's eulogy. 113 

position, character, and origin, he was at that moment 
especially the representative of his conntrj-. The Unity 
of the Republic was menaced. He was from that vast 
controlling Northwest, which would never renounce its 
communications with the sea, whether by the Mississippi 
or by eastern avenues. The birthday Declaration of the 
Republic was dishonored, in the denial of its i)rimal 
truths. He had already become known as a volunteer 
in its defence. Republican Institutions were in jeopardy. 
He was the child of humble life, through whom Repub- 
lican Institutions would stand confest. These things 
which are so obvious now, in the light of history, were 
less apparent then m the turmoil of party. But that 
Providence, in whose hands are the destinies of nations, 
which had found out Washington to conduct his coinitry 
through the war of Independence, now found out Lin- 
coln to wage the new battle for the Unity of the Re- 
public on the foundations of Human Rights. 

The election took place. Of the popular vote, Abra- 
ham Lincoln received 1,857,610, represented by 180 
electoral ballots ; Stephen A. Douglas received 1,365,- 
976, represented by 12 electoral ballots ; John C. Breck- 
enridge received 8-17, 953, represented by 72 electoral 
ballots; and John Bell received 590,631, represented by 
39 electoral ballots. By this vote Abraham Lincoln be- 
came President. The triumph at the ballot-box was 
flashed by the telegraph over the whole country, from 
north to south, from east to west ; but it was answered 
by defiance from the slavemasters, speaking in the name 
of State Rights and for the sake of Slavery. The declared 



11-4 MEMORIAL OF PRESIDEMT LINCOLN. 

will of the American people, registered at the ballot- 
box, was set at naught. The conspiracy of years blazed 
into day. The National Government, Avhich Alexander 
n. Stephens characterized as " the best and freest gov- 
ernment, the most equal in its rights, the most just in 
its decisions, the most lenient in its measures, the most 
aspiring in its principles to elevate the race of man that 
tlie svm of heaven ever shone upon ; " and which Jeifer- 
son Davis himself pronounced " the best government 
that has ever been instituted by man," — that National 
Government, whose portrait is thus drawn by its ene- 
mies, was defied. South Carolina was the first in crime, 
and before the elected champion had turned his face 
from the beautiful prairies of the West to enter upon his 
dangerous duties. State after State had undertaken to aban- 
don its place in the Union, — senator after senator had 
dropped from his seat, — fort after fort had been lost, 
— and the mutterings of war had begun to fill the air, 
Avhile the actual President, besotted by Slavery, tranquilly 
witnessed the gigantic treason, as he sat at ease in the 
Executive Mansion — and did nothing. 

It was time for another to come upon the scene. You 
do not forget how the new President left his village 
home, never to return except under the escort of death. 
In words of farewell to the friendly multitude who sur- 
rounded him, he dedicated himself to his country and 
solemnly invoked the aid of Divine Providence. " I 
know not," he said, "how soon I shall see you again"; 
and then, with a prophetic voice he announced that a 



MR. sumner's eulogy. 115 

duty devolved upon him " greater than that which has 
devolved upon any other man since the days of Washing- 
ton," and he asked his friends to pray that he might 
receive that Divine assistance, without wliich he could not 
succeed, but with whicli success was certain. Others 
have gone forth to power and fame with gladness and 
with song. He went forth prayerfully as to a sacrifice. 

You do not forget how at each resting-place on the 
road he renewed his vows, and when at Philadelphia, 
visiting Independence Hall, his soul broke forth in 
homage to the vital truths which were there declared. 
Of all his utterances on the way to the national capital, 
after his farewell to his neighbors, there is nothing so 
prophetic as these unpremeditated words : — 

"All die political sentiments I entertain have lieen drawn, so 
far as I have been able to draw tiicni, from the sentiments which 
originated, and were given to the workl from this iiall. I have 
never had a feeling politically that did nut spring from the senti- 
ments embodied in the Declaration of Intlependence." 

" Now, my friends, can this country be saved on this basis? If it 
can, I shall consider myself one of tlic happiest men in tlie world if 
I can help to save it. If it cannot be saved upon that principle, it 
will be truly awful. But if this country cannot be saved without 
giving up that principle, I was about to say / icoithl ratlicr he 
assassinated on (he spot." 

And then, after adding that he had not expected to say 
a word, he repeated again the consecration of his life, ex- 
claiming, " I have said nothing but what I am willing to 
live by, and, (/ it he the i)leasHre of Ahnieihtij God, to 
die hi/" 



116 MEMORIAL OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 

He was about to raise the national banner over the okl 
hall. But before this service, he took up the strain which 
he loved so well, saying : — 

"It is on such an occasion as this that we can reason together, 
reaffirm our devotion to the country and the 'princ'i'ples of the Declara- 
tion of Indejiendcnce." 

Thus constantly did he bear his testimony. Surely this 
tidelity will be counted ever after among his chief glories. 
I know no mstance in history more touching, especially 
when we consider that his support of those principles 
caused his sacrifice. " Thougli every tile were a devil, 
yet will I enter Worms," said Luther. Our reformer was 
less defiant, but hardly less determined. Three times he 
had already announced, that, for the great truths of the 
Declaration, he was willing to die ; three times he had 
offered himself on tliat altar ; three times he had vowed 
himself to this martyrdom. 

Slavery was already pursuing his life. An attempt was 
made to throw from the track a train in which he was 
journeying, and a hand grenade was found secreted in 
another. Baltimore, which lay directly on his way, was 
the seat of a murderous plot against him. Avoiding the 
conspirators of Slavery, he came from Philadelphia to 
Washiugton unexpectedly in the night ; and thus, for the 
moment, cheating assassination of its victim, he entered 
the National capital. 

From this time forward his career broadens into the 
history of his country and of the age. You all know it 



MR. Sumner's eulogy. 117 

by heart. Tlicrcforo a few glimpses will be enough, that 
I may exhibit its moral rather than its story. 

The Inaugural Address — the formation of his cabinet 
— his earliest acts — his daily conversation — all attested 
the spirit of moderation witli which he approached his 
perilous position. At the same time he declared openly, 
that in the contemplation of universal law and of the Con- 
stitution, the Union of these States is perpetual ; tliat no 
State, upon its own mere motion, can lawfully get out 
of the Union ; that resolves and ordinances to that effect 
are legally void ; tliat acts of violence within any State 
are insurrectionary or revolutionary ; and that, to the 
extent of his ability, he should take care, according to 
the express injunction of the C-onstitution, that the laws 
of the Union should be faithfully executed in all the 
States. But, while thus positive in upholding the Unity 
of the Republic, he was determined that on his part there 
should be no act of offence ; that there should be no blood- 
shed or violence unless forced upon the country ; that it 
was his duty to hold, occupy, and possess the property 
and places belonging to the Government, but beyond what 
was necessary for this object, there would be no exercise 
of force, and the people everywhere would be left in that 
perfect security whicli is most favorable to calm thought 
and reflection. 

But the madness of Slavery knew no bounds. It had 
been determined from the beginning that the Union should 
be broken, and no moderation could change this wicked 
purpose. A pretended power was organized, in the form 



lis MEMORIAL OF niESIDEJsT LINCOLN. 

of a Confederacy, with Slavery as the declaied corner- 
stone. You know what ensued. Fort Sumter was 
attacked, and, after a fiery storm of shot and shell for 
thirty-three hours, the national flag fell. This was l-ith 
April, 1861. War had begun. 

War is always a scourge, and it never can be regarded 
without sadness. It is one of the mysteries of Provi- 
dence, that it is still allowed to vex mankind. There 
were few who deprecated it more than the President. 
From his Quaker blood and from reflection, he was essen- 
tially a man of peace. In one of his speeches during his 
sliort service in Congress, he arraigned military glory as 
"that rainbow- that rises in showers of blood — that ser- 
pent eye that charms b\it to destroy ; " and now that he 
^vas charged with the terrible responsibility of govern- 
ment, he was none the less earnest for peace. He was 
not willing to see his beloved country torn by bloody 
battle, and fellow-citizens striking at each other. But 
after the criminal assault on Fort Sumter, there was no 
alternative. The Republic was in danger, and every man 
from President to citizen was summoned to the defence. 
Nor was this all. An attempt was made to invest Slavery 
with national Independence, and the President, w^ho dis- 
liked both slavery and war, described, perhaps, his own 
condition, when, in a letter to one of the Society of 
Friends, he said, " Your people have had and are having 
very great trials on principles and faith. Opposed to 
botli war and ojjpression, tlieij can oiilij practical/j/ oiipose 
oppression bj/ irar." In these few words the whole case 
is stated ; inasmuch as, wliatcver might be the pre- 



Mil. Sumner's eulogy. 119 

tension of State Rights, the war was made necessary 
to put down the hideous ambition of Slavery. 

The slave-masters simply put in execution a conspiracy 
long contrived, for which tlicy had already prepared the 
way : first, by teaching that any State might, at its own 
will, break from the Union, and, secondly, by teaching 
that colored persons were so far inferior as not to be 
embraced in the promises of the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence, but were justly lield as slaves. Tlie Mephistopheles 
of Slavery, Mr. Calhoun, had, for years, inculcated both 
these pretensions. But the pretension of State Rights was 
merely a cover for Slavery. 

Therefore, when it was determined that the slave-mas- 
ters should be encountered, two things were resolved : 
first, that this Republic was one and indivisible ; and, 
secondly, that no hideous Power, with Slavery blazoned 
on its front, should be created on our soil. Here was 
an affirmation and a denial ; first, an affirmation of the 
Unity of the Republic; and, secondly, a denial of any 
independent foothold to rebel Slavery. In accepting the 
challenge at Fort Sumter, the President became the voice 
of the country, which, with a stern determination, insisted 
that the Rebellion should be put down by war. The 
people were in earnest, and would not brook hesitation ; 
and they were right. If ever in history war was neces- 
sary, — if ever in history war was holy, — it was the war 
then and there begun for the overthrow of rebel Slavery. 

From the first cannon shot, it was plain that the Rebel- 
lion was nothing but Slavery in arms ; but such was the 



l"-20 MEMORIAL OF PRESIDENT LIN'COLN. 

power of Sla\cry, even in the Free States, that mouths 
ehxpsed before this giant criminal was directly attacked. 
Generals in the field were tender witli regard to it, 
as if it were a church, or a work of the fine arts. 
It was only under the teaching of disaster that the 
country was aroused. The first step was taken in Con- 
gress after the defeat at Bull Run. But still the Pres- 
ident hesitated. Disaster thickened and graves opened, 
until at last the country saAV that only by justice could 
we hojje for ]>ivine favor, and the President, who leaned 
so closely upon the popular heart, pronounced that great 
w^ord, by which all slaves in the Rebel States were 
set free. Let it be named forever to his glory, that he 
grasped the thunderbolt, even though tardily, under 
which the Rebellion staggered to its fall ; that, following 
up the blow, he enlisted colored citizens as soldiers in the 
national army ; and, that he declared his final purpose 
never to retract or modify the Emancipation Proclamation, 
nor to return into Slavery any person free by the terms of 
that instrument, or by any of the acts of Congress, saying, 
loftily, " If the people should, by whatever mode or 
means, make it an executive duty to re-enslave such 
persons, another and not I must be the instrument to 
perform it." 

It was sometimes said that tlie Proclamation was of 
doubtful constitutionality. If this criticism did not pro- 
ceed from sympathy with Slavery, it evidently proceeded 
from the prevailing superstition Avith regard to this idol. 
Future jurists wall read with astonishment that such a 
flagrant Avrong could be considered at any time as having 



MR. SUMNERS EULOGY. 121 

any rights wliicli a court was bound to respect, and 
especially that rebels in arms could be considered as 
having any title to the services of people whose allegi- 
ance was primarily due to the United States. But, turn- 
ing from these conclusions, it seems to be obvious, that 
Slavery, which stood exclusively on local law without any 
support in natural law, must have fallen with the local 
government, both legally and constitutionally ; %''/(//, 
inasmuch as it ceased to have any valid legal sujjport ; 
and constitufionaUij, inasmuch as it came at once within 
the exclusive jurisdiction of the Constitution, where 
Liberty is the prevailing law. The President did not act 
upon these principles, but, speaking with the voice of 
authority, he said " Let the slaves be free." What Court 
and Congress hesitated to declare, he proclaimed, and 
thus enrolled Iiimself among the world's Emancipators. 

Passing from the Proclamation of Emancipation, which 
places its author so far above human approach that 
human envy cannot reach him, I carry you for one 
moment to our Foreign Relations. The convulsion here 
Avas felt in the most distant places — as at the great earth- 
quake of Lisbon, when that capital seemed about to be 
submerged, there was a commotion of the waters in our 
Northern Lakes. All Europe was stirred. There, too, 
was the Slavery Question in another form. England, in an 
unhappy moment, under an ill-considered plea of " neces- 
sity" — which Milton tells us was tlie plea by which the 
fiend " excused a devilish deed " — accorded to rebel 
Slavery the rights of belligerency on the ocean, and then 



122 MEMORIAL OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 

proceeded to oi)on her ports, to surrender her workshops, 
and to let loose her merchant ships in aid of this wicked- 
ness; — forgetting all the relations of alliance and amity 
W'ith the United States — forgetting all the logic of 
English history — forgetting all the distinctions of right 
and Avrong — and forgetting also that a new Power 
founded on Slavery was a moral monster with which a 
just nation could have nothing to do. To appreciate the 
character of this concession, we must appreciate clearly 
the whole vast unprecedented crime of the llebellion, 
taking its complexion from Slavery. Undoubtedly it was 
criminal to assail the Unity of this Republic, and thus 
destroy its peace and impair its example in the world ; 
but the attempt to build a new Power on Slavery as a 
corner-stone, and with no other declared object of sep- 
arate existence, was more than criminal, or rather it was 
a crime of that untold, unspeakable guilt, which no 
language can depict and which no judgment can be 
too swift to condemn. The associates in this terrible 
apostasy might rebuke each other in the words of an old 
dramatist : — 

Thou must do, then, 
What no malevolent star will dare to look on, 
It is so wicked ; for which men will curse thee 
For being the instrument, and the blest angels 
Forsake me at my need, for being the author ; 
For 't is a deed of night, of night, Francisco ! 
In which the memory of all good actions 
We can pretend to, shall be buried quick ; 
Or, if we be remembered, it shall be 
To fright posterity by an example 
That have outgone all precedents of villains 
That were before us. 

[_Masse»ger. Duke of Milan. Act I. 



MR. SUMNEU'S EULOGY. 123 

To recognize such a Power ; — to enter into semi- 
alUance with it; — to invest it with rights; — to open 
ports to it; — to surrender workshops to it; — to build 
ships for it; — to drive a busy commerce with it; — all 
this, or any part of this, is positive and plain complicity 
with the original guilt, and must be judged as we judge 
any other complicity with Slavery. To say that it was 
a necessity, is only to repeat the plea which has been 
made by slave-masters and slave-traders from the earliest 
moment, when driven to vindicate their crime. But 
a generous Englishman, who was an ornament of letters, 
and who has told us in memorable lines " what consti- 
tutes a State," has denounced all complicity with Slavery 
in words which strike directly at this plea of ueressit^i/. 
" Let sugar be as dear as it may," said Sir AVilliam .Jones 
to the freeholders of INIiddlesex, " it is better to cat none ; 
to eat honey, if sweetness only be palatable ; better to 
eat aloes, or coloquintida, than violate a primary law of 
nature impressed on every heart not imbruted by avarice, 
or rob one honest creature of these eternal rights of 
which no laAv upon earth can justly deprive him." 

England led in the concession of belligerent rights to 
rebel Slavery. No event of the war has been comparable 
to this concession in encouragement to this transcendant 
crime or in [)rcjudice to the United States. It was out of 
English ports and English workshops that rebel Slavery 
drew its supplies. It was in English ship-yards that the 
cruisers of rebel Slavery were built and equipped. It was 
from English foundries and arsenals that rebel Slavery 
was armed. And all this was made easy, when her 



124 MEMORIAL OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 

Majesty's government, under the pretence of an impos- 
sible neutrality, lifted rebel Slavery to an equality 
Avith the United States. This was the fatal concession 
■which gave to rebel Slavery hdHgercHt power on tlie 
ocean. The early legend was here verified. King Arthur 
was without a sword, when suddenly one appeared, 
thrust out from a lake. "Lo!" said Merlin, the en- 
chanter, " yonder is a sword ; it belongeth to the Lady 
of the Lake ; //' slie will, thou maijest iakc if ; hat if she 
wiU not, it will nut he in tin/ power to take it" And the 
Lady of the Lake yielded the sword, so says the legend 
— even as England has since yielded the sword to rebel 
Slavery. 

The President saw the painful consequences of this 
concession, and especially tliat it was a first step towards 
the acknowledgment of I'ebel Slavery as an Lidependent 
Power. Clearly, if it were proper for a Foreign Power 
to acknowledge Belligerency, it might, at a later stage, be 
proper to acknowledge Independence ; and any objection 
vital to Independence, Avould, if applicable, be equally 
vital to Belligerency. Solemn resolutions, by Congress, 
on this subject were communicated to Foreign Powers ; 
but the unanswerable argument against any possible 
recognition of a new Power founded on Slavery — Avhether 
as Independent or as Belligerent — was stated by the 
President, in a paper which I now hold in my hand, 
and which has never before seen the light. It is a copy 
of a resolution drawn by himself, which he gave to me, 
in his own autograph, for transmission to one of our 
valued friends abroad, as an expression of his opinion 



MR. summer's eulogy. 125 

on the great question ii^volved, and a guide to public 
duty. It is in these words : — 

" Jf'/icreas, while hcrctafore States and Nations have tolerated 
Slavery, rccenllij, for the first [time] in the world, an attempt has 
been made to construct a new nation u[)on the basis of Human 
Slavery, and with the primaiy and fundamental object to maintain, 
enlarge, and per[ietuate the same, therefore 

" Bcsoh-cd, that no such embryo State should ever be recognized 
by, or admitted into, the family of Christian and civilized nations ; 
and that all Christian and civilized men everywhere should, liy all 
lawful means, resist to tiie utmost such recognition or admission." 

You will see how distinctly any recognition of rebel 
Slavery as an Independent Power is branded, and how 
" all Christian and civilized men everywhere" arc sum- 
moned " to resist to the utmost such recognition ; " and 
precisely for the same reason " such C'hristian and civil- 
ized men everywhere " should have resisted to the utmost 
any recognition of rebel Slavery as a Belligerent Power. 
Of course, had such a benign spirit entered into the 
counsels of England when Slavery first took up arms 
against the Republic, this great historic nation would 
have shrunk at every hazard from that fatal concession, 
which was in itself a plain contribution to Slavery, and 
opened the way to infinite contributions, without \vhich 
the criminal pretender must have speedily succumbed. 
There would have been no plea of " necessity." But 
Divine Providence willed it otherwise. Perhaps it was 
essential to the full revelation of its boundless capacities, 
that the Republic should stand forth alone, in sublime 



r2G MEMORIAL OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 

solitude, warring for Human Rights, and thus become an 
example to mankind. 

INIcanwhile the war continued with the proverbial 
vicissitudes of this arbitrament. Battles were fought 
and lost. Other battles were fought and won. llebel 
Slavery stood face to face in deadly conflict with the 
Declaration of Independence, when the President, with 
unconscious power, dealt it another blow, second only 
to the Proclamation of Emancipation. This was at the 
blood-soaked field of Gettysburg, where the armies of 
the Republic had encountered the armies of Slavery, 
and, after a conflict of three days, had driven them 
back with destructive slaughter — as at that decisive 
battle of Tours, on which hung the destinies of Chris- 
tianity in Western Europe, the invading Mahometans, 
after a conflict of three days, were driven back by 
Charles Martel. No battle of the present war was more 
important. Few battles in history can compare with it. 
A few months later, there was another meeting on that 
same field. It was of grateful fellow-citizens, gathered 
from all parts of the Union to dedicate it to the mem- 
ory of those who had fallen there. Among these were 
eminent men from our own country and from foreign 
lands. There too was your classic orator, whose finished 
address was a model of literary excellence. The Pres- 
ident spoke very briefly ; but his few words will live 
as long as time. Since Simonides wrote the epitaph for 
those who died at Thermopylae, nothing equal to them 
has ever been breathed over the fallen dead. Thus he 



MR. summer's eulogy. 127 

began: "Fourscore and seven years ago onr fathers 
brought forth npon this continent a new nation, co)/ce!red 
in Ijihcrfi/ mid ffedicufed to the projiositiou tJiat all tiK'it are 
created equal." The Equality of all men, which he had so 
often vindicated and for which he was willing to die, is 
thus heralded, and the country is again called to carry it 
forward, that our duty may not be left undone. 

" It is for us the living, rather to be dedicated here to tlie 
unjiiiishcd tcorlc which they wlio fought here liave thus fxr so nobly 
advanced. It is rather fur us to be liere dedicated to the great tasl: 
remaining before us, tliat from these lionored dead we take in- 
creased devotion to tliat cause for whicli they gave tlie hist measure 
of devotion ; that we here liighly resolve that these dead sliall not 
have died in vain ; that tliis nation under God shall liave a new 
birth of Freedom, and tliat government of the people, liy the 
people, and for the j>eoplc, shall not perish from tlie earth." 

That speech, uttered at the field of Gettysburg, and 
now sanctified by the martyrdom of its author, is a mon- 
umental act. In the modesty of his nature he said : 
" the world will little note, nor long remember what we 
say here ; but it can never forget what they did here." 
He was mistaken. The world noted at once what he said, 
and will never cease to remember it. The battle itself 
was less important than the speech. Ideas are always 
more than battles. 

Among the events which secured to him the assured 
confidence of the country against all party clamor and 
prejudice, you cannot place this speech too high. To 
some who had doubted his earnestness, here was touching 
proof of their error. Others who had followed him with 



128 MEMORIAL OF PRESIDE>T LINCOLN. 

iudiiference, were warmed with grateful sympathy. There 
were none to criticise. 

He was re-elected President ; and here was not only a 
personal triumph, but a triumph of the Eepublic. For 
himself personally, it was much to tind his administration 
thus ratified ; but for republican ideas it was of incal- 
culable value, that, at such a time, the plume of the 
soldier had not prevailed. In the midst of war, the 
people at the ballot-box deliberately selected a civilian. 
Ye, who doubt the destinies of the Republic — who 
fear the ambition of a military chief, — or who suspect the 
popular will — do not forget, that, at this moment, when 
the voice of battle filled the whole land, the country 
quietly appointed for its ruler this man of peace. 

The Inaugural Address which signalized his entry for 
a second time upon his great duties, was briefer than any 
similar address in our history ; but it has already gone 
further, and will live longer, than any other. It was 
a continuation of the Gettysburg speech, with the same 
sublimity and gentleness. Its concluding words were like 
an angelic benediction. 

And now there was a surfeit of battle and of victory. 
Calmly he saw the land of Slavery enveloped by the 
national forces ; saw the great coil bent by his generals 
about it ; saw the mighty (jarrote as it tightened against 
the neck of the Rebellion. Good news came from all 
quarters. Everywhere the army was doing its duty. 
One was conquering in Tennessee ; another was march- 
ing in Georgia and Carolina ; another was watching at 



MR. su.mner's eulogy. 12*J 

Richmond. The navy echoed hack the thunders of tlie 
army. Phice after pUice was fiiUing — Savannah, Charles- 
ton. Fort Fisher, Wihnington. The President left the 
Nationnl Capital to be near the Lieutenant-Geueral. Then 
came the capture of Petersburg and Richmond, with the 
flight of Jefferson Davis and his cabinet. Without pomp 
or military escort, the President entered the Capital of the 
Rebellion and walked its streets, from which Slavery had 
fled forever. Then came the surrender of Lee. The 
surrender of Johnston was at hand. The military power 
of rebel Slavery had been broken like a Prince Rupert 
drop, and everywhere witliin its confines the barbarous 
government it had set u[) was tumbling in crash and ruin. 
The country was in ecstasy. All this he watched without 
elation, while his soul was brooding on thoughts of peace 
and clemency. His youthful son, who had been on the staff 
of the Lieutenaut-General, returned on the morning of 
Friday, 14th April, to resume his interrupted studies. The 
father was happy in the sound of his footsteps, and felt the 
augury of peace. On the same day the Lieutenant-General 
returned. In the intimacy of his family the President said 
tliat this day the war was over. In the evening he sought 
relaxation, and you know the rest. Alas ! the war was not 
over. The minions of Slavery were dogging him with 
unabated animosity, and that night he became a martyr. 
The country rose at once in an agony of grief, and 
strong men everywhere wept. City, town, and village 
were darkened by the obsetpiics, as they swept b) with 
more than " sceptred pall." Every street was draped 
witli the ensigns of woe. He had become, as it were, 



130 MEMORIAL OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 

the inmate of every house, and the families of the land 
were in mourning. Not only in the Executive mansion, 
but in uncounted homes, was his vacant chair. Xever 
before was such universal sorrow ; and already the voice 
of lamentation is returning to us from Europe, where can- 
dor towards him had begun even before his tragical death. 
Only a short time ago, he was unknown, except in his own 
State. Only a short time ago, he had visited Xew York 
as a stranger, and was shown about its streets by youthful 
compauions. Five years later, he was borne through 
these streets witli funeral pomp, such as the world uever 
before witnessed. Space and speed were forgotten in 
the offering of hearts. As the surpassing pageant moved 
over counties and States, from ocean-side to prairie, on 
iron highways, at thirty miles an hour, the whole afflicted 
people bent their uncovered heads. 

At the first moment it was hard to comprehend this 
blow, and many cried in despair. But the rule of God 
has been too visible of late to allow any doubt of his con- 
stant presence. Did not our martyr remind us in his last 
address, that the judgments of the Lord are true, and 
righteous altogether 1 And who will say that his death 
was not a judgment of the Lord ? Perhaps it was needed 
to lift the country to a more perfect justice and to inspire 
it with a sublimer faitli. Perhaps it was sent in mercy to 
set a sacred, irreversible seal upon the good he had done, 
and to put Emancipation beyond all mortal question. 
Perhaps it was the sacrificial consecration of those primal 
truths, embodied in the birthday Declaration of the Re- 
public, which he had so often vindicated, and for which 



MR. SUM^'ER^S EULOGY. 131 

he had announced his wilHngncss to die. He is gone, and 
he has been mourned sincerely. It is only private sorrow 
that could wish lo recall the dead. He is now removed 
beyond earthly vicissitudes. Life and death are both past 
He had been happy in life. He was not less happy in 
death. In death, as in life, he was still under the guar- 
dianship of that Divine Providence, which took him early 
by the hand and led him from obscurity to power and 
fame. The blow was sudden, but not unprepared for. 
Only on the Sunday preceding, as he was coming from 
the front on board the steamer — with a quarto Shake- 
speare in his hands — he read aloud the well-known words 
of his favorite Macbeth : — 

Duncan is in his grave ; 
After life's fitful fever, he sleeps well. 
Treason has done his worst ; nor steel, nor poison, 
Maliee domestic, foreign levy, nothing 
Can touch him further. 

Impressed by their beauty or by some presentiment 
unnttered, he read them aloud a second time. As the 
friends who then surrounded him listened to his read- 
ing, they little thought how, in a few days, what was 
said of the murdered Duncan would be said of him. 
Nothing can touch him further. He is saved from the 
trials that were gathering about him. He had fought 
the good fight of Emancipation. He had borne the 
brunt of war with embattled hosts against him, and had 
conquered. He had made the name of Republic a triumph 
and a joy in foreign lands. Now that the strife of blood 
was ended, it remained to be seen how he could confront 



132 MEMORIAL OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 

those machinations, which are only a pruhm(]otio)i of the 
war, and more dangerous because more subtle, where re- 
cent rebels, with professions of Union on the lips, but still 
denying the birthday Declaration of the Republic, vainly 
seek to organize peace on atiotltcr Olir/archj/ of tlie shin. 
From all these trials he w^as saved. But his testimony 
lives and will live forever, quickened by the undying 
echoes of his tomb. Invisible to mortal sight, and now 
above all human weakness, he is still champion, as in his 
early conflict, summoning his countrymen bach to the truths 
that are in the Declaration of Independence. Dead, he 
speaks with more than living voice. But the author of 
Emancipation cannot die. His immortality on earth has 
begun. His country and his age are already enshrined 
in his example, as if he were its great poet gathered to 
his fathers : — 

Back to the living hath he turned him, 

And all of death has passed away ; 
The age that thought him dead and mourned him, 

Itself now lives but in his lay. 

If the President were alive, he would protest against 
any monotony of panegyric. He never exaggerated. He 
was ahvays cautious in praise, as in censure. In endeav- 
oring to estimate his character, we shall be nearer to him 
in proportion as we cultivate the same spirit. 

In person he was tall and bony, with little resemblance 
to any historic portrait, unless he might seem in one respect 
to justify the epithet which was given to an early English 
monarch. As he stood, his form was angular, with 



:\[R. SUMNER'S EULOGY. lo)! 

something of that straightncss in its lines which is 
so peculiar in the figure of Dante by Flaxman. His 
countenance had more of rugged strength than his 
person, and while in repose sometimes seemed sad ; 
but it lighted up easily. Perhaps the rpiality which 
struck most at first sight was his simplicity of manners 
and conversation, without form or ceremony of any kind, 
beyond that among neighbors. His handwriting had the 
same simplicity. It was as clear as that of Washington, 
but less florid. Each had been a surveyor, and was per- 
haps, indebted to this experience. But the son of the 
"Western pioneer was more simple in nature, and the man 
appeared in the autograph. That integrity which has 
become a proverb, belonged to the same quality. The 
most perfect honesty must be the most perfect simplicity. 
The words by which an ancient Roman was described 
belong to him : Jltd ii/nocenfissii»us, proposito saiictissiiniis. 
He was naturally humane, inclined to pardon, and never 
remembering the hard things said against him. He was 
always good to the poor, and in his dealings with them 
was full of those "kind little words which are of the same 
blood as great and holy deeds." Only on the Saturday 
before his death I saw him shake hands with more than 
five thousand soldier-patients in the tent hospitals at 
City Point, and he said afterwards that his arm was not 
tired. Such a character awakened instinctively the sym- 
pathy of the people. They saw his fellow-feeling with 
them and felt the kinship. With him as President, the 
idea of Republican Institutions, where no place is too 
high for the humblest, was perpetually manifest, so that 



134 MEMORIAL OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 

liis simple presence was like a Proclainatioii of the 
Equality of all Men. 

While social in nature and enjoying the flow of conver- 
sation, lie was often singularly reticent. Modesty was 
natural to such a character. As he was without affecta- 
tion, so he was without pretence or jealousy. No person 
civil or military can complain that he appropriated to 
himself any honor that belonged to another. To each 
and all he anxiously gave the credit that was due. And 
this same spirit was apparent in smaller things. On one 
occasion, in a sally of Congressional debate, he said that a 
fiery slave-master of Georgia, to whom he was replying, 
"was an eloquent man, and a man of learning ; — so far as 
he could judge of learning, not being learned himself." 
(^CuiK/ress. Globe, Appendix, \st session, '40(h Co/u/rcss, p. 
l(M-2.) 

His humor has become a proverb. He insisted 
sometimes that he had no invention, but only a memory. 
He did not forget the good things that he heard, and 
was never without a familiar story to illustrate his mean- 
ing. When he spoke, the recent West seemed to vie with 
the ancient East in apologue and fable. His ideas moved, 
as the beasts entered Noah's ark, in pairs. At times his 
illustrations had a homely felicity, and with him they 
seemed to be not less important than the argument, 
which he always enforced with a certain intensity of 
manner and voice. But this same humor was often dis- 
played where there Avas no story, and with a point that 
might remind you of Franklin. I know not how the 
iudiflerence, which many persons sliowed with regard to 



MR. sujiner's eulogy. 13o 

Slavery, could be exposed more effectively than when 
lie said of a political antagonist, who was tluis in- 
different, " I suppose the institution of Slavery really 
looks small to him. He is so put up by nature that a lash 
upon his back would hurt him, but a lash upon anybody 
else's back does not hurt him." And then, again, there 
is a bit of reply to Mr. Douglas, which is characteristic 
not only for its humor, but as showing how little at that 
time he was looking to the great place which he reached 
so soon afterwards. " Senator Douglas," said he, " is of 
world-wide renown. All the anxious politicians of his 
party, or who have been of his party for years past, luxve 
been looking u[)on him as certainly, at no distant day, to 
be the President of the United States. They have seen 
in his round, jolly, fruitful face, post offices, land offices, 
marshalships, and cabinet appointments, chargcships and 
foreign missions, bursting and sprouting out in a won- 
derful exuberance, ready to be laid hold of by their 
greedy hands. . . On the coiitrarj/, nohodjj has ccer 
expected me to he President. In my poor, lean, lank face 
nobody has ever seen that any cabbages were sprout- 
ing out. These are disadvantages that the Repub- 
licans labor under. We have to fight the battle upon 
principle, and upon principle alone." (Debate with Douglas, 
p. 5.5.) Here is a glimpse with regard to himself, 
which is as honorable as it is curious. In a different 
vein, he said, while President, " the national government 
must not undertake to run the churches." Here wisdonr 
and humor seem to vie with each other. 

He was original in mind as in character. His style 



13G MEMORIAL OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 

was bis own ; formed on uo model, and spriuging directly 
from himself. While failing often in correctness, it is 
sometimes nniqne in beanty and in sentiment. There ure 
passages which will live always. It is no exaggeration to 
say, that, in weight and pith, suffused in a certain poetical 
color, they call to mind Bacon's Essays. Such passages 
make an epoch in State Papers. No Presidential mes- 
sage or speech from a throne ever had any thing of such 
touching reality. They are harbingers of the great era 
of Humanity. While uttered from the heights of power, 
they reveal a simple, unaffected trust in Almighty God, 
and speak to the pcojile as equal to equal. 

He was placed by Providence at the head of his coun- 
try during an unprecedented crisis, when the fountains 
of the great deep were broken up, and men turned for 
protection to military power. Multitudinous armies were 
mustered. Great navies were created. Of all these 
he was the constitutional Commander-in-Chief. As the 
war proceeded, all his prerogatives enlarged and others 
si)rang into being, until the sway of a Republican Presi- 
dent became imperatorial and imperial. But not for one 
moment did the modesty of his nature desert him. His 
constant thought was his country, and how to serve it. 
He saw the certain greatness of the Republic, and was 
pleased in looking forward to that early day, when, 
according to assured calculation, its millions of people 
will count by the hundred ; but he saw in this prodigious 
sway nothing but the good of man. Personal ambi- 
tion at the expense of patriotism was as far removed 
from the simple purity of his nature as poison from 



MR. sumiser's eulogy. 137 

a strawberry. And thus with equal courage in the 
darkest hours he couthuied ou, heeding- as little the 
warnings of danger as the temptations of power. ■' It 
would not do for a President," he said, '-to have giinrds 
witli drawn sabres at his door, as if he fancied he were, or 
were trying to be, or were assuming to be, an emperor." 
And in the same liomeliness he spoke of his return at 
morning to his daily duties as " opening sliop." Tliough 
commissioning officers in multitudes beyond any other 
person of authentic history, he never learned tlie mystery 
of shoulder-straps and of buttons in the military and naval 
uniforms, except that ho had noticed three stars on the 
shoulders of the Lieuteuant-General. 

When be became President he was without any con- 
siderable experience in public affairs ; nor was he much 
versed in history, whose lessons would have been most 
valuable. As he became more familiar with the place, 
his facility evidently increased. He had " learned the 
ropes," so he said. But his habits of business were 
irregular, and they were never those of despatch. He 
did not see at once the just proportions of things, and 
allowed himself to be too much occupied by details. 
Even in small things, as well as in great, there was in 
him a certain resistance to be overcome. There were 
moments when this delay caused impatience, and im- 
portant questions seemed to suffer. But when the blow 
was struck there was nothing but gratitude, and all 
confessed the singleness with which he had sought the 
public good. There was also a conviction, that, tliough 

slow to reach his conclusion, he was iutiexiblc in main- 
is 



138 MEMORIAL OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 

taining it. Pompcy boasted that by the stamp of his foot 
he might raise an army. The President might have done 
the same ; but, according to his own words, he " put his 
foot down," and saved a principle. 

In the statement of moral truth and the exposure of 
wrong, he was at times singularly cogent. There was 
fire as Avell as light in his words. Nobody exhibited 
Slavery in its eilormity more clearly. On one occasion 
he blasted it as "a monstrous injustice"; on another 
he pictured the slave-master as " wringing his bread 
from the sweat of other men's faces"; and then, on 
still another he said, with exquisite simplicity of diction, 
" If Slavery is not wrong, then nothing is wrong." 
Would you find any condemnation of Slavery more com- 
plete, you must go to the sayings of John Brown or to 
those famous words of John Wesley, when the great 
Methodist held it up as " the sum of all villanies." 
Another mind, more submissive to the truth which he 
recognized, and less disposed to take counsel of to-morrow, 
would not have hesitated in carrying forward this judg- 
ment to its natural conclusion. Perhaps, his courage to 
apply truth was not ahvays equal to his clearness in 
seeing it. Perhaps, the heights that he gained in con- 
science were not always sustained in conduct. And 
have we not been told that the soul can gain heights 
which it cannot keep ? Thus while blasting Slavery, 
he still waited, till many feared that his judgment would 
" lose the name of action." And even while vindicating 
the Equality of all Men, against the assaults of one of the 
ablest debaters of the countrv, and insisting, with admi- 



MR. SUMNEU'S EULOGY. 139 

rable constancy, that colored persons were embraced 
within the birthday promises of the Repnblic, he yet 
allowed himself to be pressed by his adversary to an il- 
logical limitation of this self-evident truth, so that colored 
persons might be excluded from political rights. Rut 
he was at all times willing to learn and not ashamed 
to change. Before death he had already expressed his 
desire that the suffrage should be extended to colored 
persons in certain cases ; but here again he failed to 
apply that very principle of Eciuality for which he so 
often contended. If the suffrage be given to colored 
persons only in certain cases, then, of course, it can be 
given to whites only in the same cases ; or E(]uality ceases 
to exist. 

It was his own frank confession that he had not con- 
trolled events, but that they had controlled him. At all 
the great stages of the war, he followed rather than led. 
The people, under God, were masters. Let it not be for- 
gotten that the triumphs of this war, and even Emanci- 
pation itself, sprang from the great heart of the Amer- 
ican people. Individual services have been important ; 
but there is no man who has been necessary. 

There was one theme on which latterly he was dis- 
posed to conduct the public mind. It was the treat- 
ment of the rebel leaders. His policy was never an- 
nounced, and of course it would always have been 
subject to modification, in the light of experience. But 
it is well known that, at the very moment of his assas- 
sination, he was much occupied by thoughts of lenity 
and pardon. He was never harsh, even in speaking of 



140 ME.MOKIAL OF I'RESIUENT LINCOLN. 

JefFersou IJavis ; and, only a few days before his end, 
Avhen one who was privileged to speak to him in that 
way, said, "Do not allow him to escape the law, — he 
must be hanged," the President replied calmly, in the 
words which he had adopted in his last luangural Ad- 
dress, " Judge not, that ye be not judged." And when 
pressed again by the remark that the sight of Libby 
Prison made it impossible to pardon him, the President 
repeated twice over these same words, revealing unmis- 
takably the generous sentiments of his heart. The ques- 
tion of clemency here is the very theme so ably debated 
between Cnesar and Cato, while the Iloman Senate was 
considering the punishment of the confederates of Cati- 
line. C;esar consented to confiscation and imprisonment, 
but pleaded for the lives of the criminals Cato was 
sterner. It is probable that the President, who was a 
Cato in patriotism, would on this occasion have followed 
the counsels of Ctesar. 

Good w^ill to all men was with him a science as well as 
a sentiment. His nature was pacific, and, throughout the 
terrible conflict, his thoughts were always turned on 
peace. He wished peace among ourselves, and he wished 
peace with foreign powers. While abounding in grati- 
tude to the officers and men, who had so grandly fought the 
national battle, he longed to see their swords c: ncealed 
in their scabbards, never again to flash against the sky. 
His prudence found expression in the saying, " One war 
at a time ; " but his whole nature seemed to say, " Peace 
always." And yet it was his fortune to conduct one of the 
<n-eatest wars of all time. " With malice towards none ; 



MR. SUMNER S EULOGY. 141 

with charity for all ; with firmness for the right, as God 
gives us to sec the right ; " so he worked and lived, and 
these words of his own might be his honest epitaph. 

His place in history may be seen at once from the 
transcendent events with which his name must be forever 
associated. The pyramids of our country are built by 
the people more than by any ruler ; but the ruler of the 
peo[)le at such a moment cannot be forgotten. 

It is impossible to exaggerate the Proclamation of 
Emancipation as an historic event. Its intiuence cannot 
be limited to the present in place or time. It will reach 
beyond the national jurisdiction, and lieyond the present 
age. Besides its immediate efficacy in liberating slaves 
at home, it will be one of the landmarks of Human 
Progress. From the solidarity of Slavery, the fall of this 
abomination among us, must cause its fall everywhere, — 
so that in C'uba, Porto Rico, Brazil, or wherever else 
a slave may wear a chain, that Proclamation will be felt. 
It will also be proudly recognized in the destinies of the 
Republic which it advanced. Only a short time before 
the Czar of Russia, by Proclamation also, raised twenty 
millions of serfs to the dignity of freemen ; but even 
this great act was less historic. Though of incalculable 
importance to the serfs, it was not the triumph of 
Popular Government, and it came from the East instead 
of the West. It is to the West that the world now looks 
for sunrise. Video solem orientcm in occidente. But the 
Emancipation Proclamation itself was one of the agencies 
in the military overthrow of the Rebellion, which, if 



142 MEMOKIAL OF TRESIDENT LINCOLN. 

regarded as an achievement of war, is one of the greatest 
in the history of war, but, if regarded in its pohtical con- 
sequences, is one of the grandest events in all history. 
Here again the magnitude of the event can be fully 
appreciated only when it is considered, that the triumph 
of the Republic is the triumph of Popular Institutions 
everywhere. It is much that the Republic has become 
impregnable, whether against " malice domestic " or 
" foreign levy ; '' but it is more that it has become an 
example to the world. That all this should be done 
under a President, who represented especially the people, 
who spoke always in sympathy with the people in words 
of power that cannot be forgotten, and who sealed his de- 
votion with his life, adds to the grandeur of the example. 

Here are great heralds of fame, such as few have had 
as they entered the lofty portals. Our martyred dead 
may be seen also in the company to which he will 
be admitted, among the purest spirits of all time, — 
martyrs, patriots, philanthropists, servants of truth and 
duty. Milton, Hampden, Sidney, Wilberforce, — all will 
welcome the new-comer. Washington will lead the hosts 
of his own country to do him honor, from the Pilgrims of 
the Mayflower to the thronging crowds who have laid 
down their lives for the Republic. 

By the association of a common death he will pass 
into the same historic galaxy with C;esar, William of 
Orange, and Henry IV. of Prance, all of whom were as- 
sassinated, — and his star will not pale by the side of 
theirs. Ca;sar was a contrast to him in everything, unless 
it be in clemency, and in the coincidence that each was 



MR. sumner's eulogy. 143 

fifty-six years of age at the time of his death. TIow 
unlike in all else. Ctrsar was of a brilliant lineage, 
which he traced on one side to the immortal gods, and on 
the other to one of the recent chiefs of Rome ; of com- 
Ijletest education ; of amplest means ; of rarest experi- 
ence ; of acknowledged genius as statesman, soldier, ora- 
tor, and writer ; — being in himself the most finished man 
of antiquity ; but he was the enslaver of his country, whose 
personal ambition took the place of patriotism, and 
whose name has since become the synonyme of imperial 
power. William of Orange was of princely origin, and in 
early life was a page in the palace of Charles V. During 
the long contest of Holland Avith Spain, he became the 
liberator of his country, which he conducted wisely, surely, 
and greatly, — anticiitating the example of Washington. 
The name of " Silent," which he bore, may suggest the 
reticence of his American parallel. Henry IV., memorable 
for practical sense, anecdote, and pregnant wit, represent- 
ed the idea of National Unity in France as the Supreme 
condition of national safety. He died, leaving great plans 
unfulfilled, and his career has been illustrated by the popu- 
lar epic of his country, La Henriade, of Voltaire. These 
are illustrious names ; but there is nothing in them which 
can eclipse the simple life of our President, whose ex- 
ample will be an epoch in the history of Humanity, and 
a rebuke to every usurper, — to be commemorated forever 
by history and by song. The cause which he serAcd was 
more than empire. The motive of his conduct was higher 
than success ; as devotion to Human Rights is higher 
than genius or power ; as MAN is higher than aught else. 



144 MEMORIAL OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 

There is another character, Avho, like him, was taken 
away at the age of fifty-six, with whom the President may 
be more properly compared. It is St. Louis of France ; 
and yet here the resemblance is only in certain kindred 
features, and the common consecration of their lives. 
The French monarch, though at the head of a military 
power, was a lover of peace, and cultivated justice to- 
wards his neighbors. Under his influence, a barbarous 
institution was overthrown, and France was lifted in the 
career of civilization. Though in an age of privilege, and 
wearing a crown, he was moved to the practice of Equal- 
ity. History recalls, with undisguised delight, the simple 
justice which he administered to his people, as he sat 
under an oak in the park of Vincennes. Our President 
struck too at a barbarism, and lifted his country. He too 
practised Equality. And he too had his oak of Vin- 
cennes. It was that plain room, where he was always 
so accessible, as to make his example difficult for future 
Presidents. But there were stated times when he was 
open to all who came with their petitions, and they flocked 
across the continent. The transactions of that simple 
court of last resort would show how much was done to 
temper the law, to assuage sorrow, and to care for the 
widow ;iud orphan ; but its only record is in heaven. 

Such, fellow-citizens, is the Life and Character of 
Abraham Lincoln. You have discerned his simple 
beginnings; — have watched his early struggles; — 
have gratefully followed his consecration to those truths 
which our fathers declared ; — have hailed him as the 



MR. summer's eulogy. 145 

twice-elected head of the Ilepul)Hc, through whom it was 
known in foreign lands; — have recognized liim at a 
period of national trial as tlie representative of the 
KiifulfiUed promises of our Fathers, even as Wasliington 
was the representative of National Independence ; and 
you have beheld liim struck down, at the moment of 
victory when rebel Slavery was everywhere succumbing. 
Reverently we acknowledge the finger of tlie Ahuighty, 
and pray that all our trials may not fail ; but that the 
promises of the Fathers may be fulfilled, so that all men 
shall be equal before the law, and government shall stand 
onlv on the consent of the governed, — two self-evident 
truths which the Repu!)lic at its birth announced. 

Traitorous assassination struck him down. But do not 
be too vindictive in heart towards the poor atom that 
held the weapon. Reserve your rage for the responsible 
Power, which not content with assailing the life of the 
Republic by atrocious Rebellion, has outraged all laws 
human and divine ; has organized Barbarism as a prin- 
ciple of conduct; has taken the lives of faithful Unionists 
at home ; has prepared robbery and murder on the 
northern borders ; has fired hotels, filled with women 
and children ; has plotted to scatter pestilence and 
poison ; has perpetrated piracy and ship-burning at sea ; 
has starved American citizens, held as prisoners ; has 
inflicted the slow torture of Andersonvillc and Libby ; 
has menaced assassination always ; and now at last, true 
to itself, has assassinated our President ; and this 
responsible Power is none other than Slavery. It is 
Slavery that has taken the life of our beloved Chief 

19 



146 MEMORIAL OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 

Magistrate, and here is another triumph of its Barbarism. 
On Slavery let vengeance fall. Spare if you please the 
T»^orms it employs; but do not — I entreat you — yield 
any amnesty to this murderous wickedness. Ravaillac, 
who took the life of Henry IV. of France, was torn 
in pieces on the public square in front of the City Hall, 
by four powerful horses, each of them attached to one of 
his limbs, and tearing in opposite directions, until at last, 
after a fearful struggle, nothing of the wretched assassin 
remained in the hands of the executioner, except his 
bloody shirt, — which was at once handed over to be 
burned. Such be our vengeance ; and let Slavery be the 
victim. 

And not only Slavery, which is another name for 
property in man, but so also that other pretension, which 
is not less irrational and hateful, that Human Rights can 
depend on color. This is the bloody shirt of the assassin ; 
and it must be handed over to be burned. 

Such a vengeance will be like a kiss of reconciliation ; 
for it will remove every obstacle to peace and harmony. 
The people where Slavery once ruled will bless the 
blow which destroyed it. The people where the kindred 
tyranny of Caste once ruled, will rejoice that this too 
fell under the same blow. They will yet confess that it 
was dealt in no harshness to them, in no unkindness, in 
no desire to humiliate, but simply and solemnly, in the 
name of the Republic, and of Human Nature ; for their 
good as well as ours ; ay, for their good more than ours. 

It is by ideas that we have compiered, more than by 
armies. The sword of the Archangel was less mightv 



MR. sumner's eulogy. 147 

than the mission which he bore from the Lord. But if 
the ideas which have given us the victory are now neg- 
lected ; if the promises of the Dechiration, which the 
Rebellion openly assailed, are still left unfulfilled, then 
will our blood and treasure have been lavished in vain. 
Alas ! for the dead who have given themselves so bravely 
to their country ; alas ! for the living who have been left 
to mourn the dead ; — if any relic of Slavery is allowed 
to continue ; especially if this bloody impostor, defeated 
in the pretension of property in man, is allowed to per- 
petuate an Ollgarchi/ of the skin ! 

And how shall these ideas be saved? In other 
words, how shall the war waged by Abraham Lincoln 
be brought to an end, so as to secure peace, tran- 
quillity and reconciliation? At this moment all turns 
on the colored suffiage in the rebel States. This 
is now the pivot of national S(fetj/. A mistake on this point 
is worse than the loss of a battle. And yet here again 
we encounter the Ptebcllion in all its odious pretensions, 
hardly less audacious than when it took up arms. As its 
camp-fires expire, the men who have trimmed them — 
taking fresh oaths of allegiance on their lips — renew 
their early activity in plotting how still to preserve an 
oligarchical power. The demon of Caste takes the place 
of the demon of Slavery. In setting ourselves against this 
fearful demon, we only follow the solemn behests of the 
great Declaration, of which our martyred President was 
the champion. And now as I close this humble tribute, 
let me ask you to adopt that championship which was his 



148 MEMORIAL OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 

first and most constant title to the national gratitude. Let 
each be a standard-bearer of tlie Declaration. I cannot 
err, if speaking at liis funeral, I detain you to insist upon 
this absorbing duty in which for the moment all other 
duties are swallowed up. 

The argument for the colored suffrage is overwhelming. 
It springs from the necessity of the case, as well as from 
the rights of man. This suffrage is needed for the secur- 
ity of the colored people ; for the stability of the local 
government ; and for the strength of the Union. Without 
it there is nothing but insecurity for the colored people, 
instability for the local government, and weakness for the 
Union, involving of course the national credit. Without 
it the Rebellion will break forth under a new alias, 
unarmed it may be, but with white votes to take pos- 
session of the local government and wield it at will, 
whether at home or in the national councils. If it be 
said that the colored people are unfit, then do I say 
that they are more fit than their recent masters, or even 
than many among the " poor whites." They have been 
loyal always, and who are you, that, under any pretence, 
exalts the prejudices of the disloyal above the rights of 
the loyal ? Their suffrage is now needed ; more even 
than you ever needed their muskets or sabres. An Eng- 
lish statesman, after the acknowledgment of the Spanish 
Colonics as Independent States, boasted that he had called 
a new world into existence to redress the balance of the 
old. In similar spirit, we too must call a new ballot 
into existence to redress that tyranny which will not 
learn the duty of justice to the colored race. 



MR. sumner's eulogy. 149 

The same National authority that struck down Slavcrj' 
must see that this other pretension is not permitted to 
survive ; nor can there be any doubt that the authority 
which struck down Shivery is competent to this kindred 
duty. Each is a part of that great poHcy of justice 
througli which alone can peace be made permanent and 
immutable. Nor can the Republic shirk this rcmLiiuing 
duty, without leaving Emancii)ation untinished and the 
early promises of the Republic unfultilled. Vain is 
the gift of Liberty, if you surrender the rights of 
the frcedman to be judged by the recent assertors of 
property in man. Burke, in his day, saw the flagrant 
inconsistency and denounced it, saying, that, whatever 
such people did on this subject was " arrant trifling," and, 
notwithstanding its plausible form, alwajs wanted what 
he aptly called " the executive principle." These words 
of warning have been adopted and repeated by two later 
statesmen, George Canning and Henry Brougham ; but 
they are so plain as not to need the support of names. 
Tlie infant must not be handed over to be suckled by the 
wolf, but carefully nursed by its parent ; and since the 
Republic is the parent of Emancipation, the Republic 
must nurse the immortal infant into maturity and 
strength. It is the Republic which at the beginning 
took up this great work. The Republic must finish what 
it began ; and it cannot err on this occasion, if, in anxious 
care, it holds nothing done so long as anything remains 
undone. It is the Republic, which, with matchless 
energy, hurled forward its armies until it conquered. 
The Republic must exact that " security for the future," 



150 MEMORIAL OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 

■without which this unparalleled war will have been 
waged in vain. It is the Republic, which to-day, with 
one consenting voice, commemorates the murdered dead. 
The same Republic, prompt to honor him, must require 
that his promises to an oppressed race be maintained in 
all their integrity and completeness, in letter and in spirit, 
so that the great cause for which he became a sacrifice, 
may not fail. His martyrdom was a new pledge beyond 
any even in life. 

There can be no question here, whether a State is in 
the Union or out of it. This is but a phrase on which 
discussion is useless. Look at the actual fact. Here all 
will agree. The old governments are vacated, and this 
is enough. Until the irhoJe body of loyal people have set 
up a government, all is under the Xatioiral authority, act- 
ing by the Executive or by Congress ; and, since the Con- 
stitution, even without the injunction of the Declaration 
of Independence, knows nothing of color, it is the obvious 
duty of the National authority to protect the whole body of 
loyal people against any denial of rights on this preten- 
sion. Already it has undertaken to say that certain per- 
sons shall not vote. Surely the same authority which may 
limit the electoral law of Slavery, may enlarge it. If the 
National authority can do anything about elections ; if it 
can order an election ; if it can regulate an election ; if 
it can exclude a traitor who is still at large, it can admit 
a loyalist, whose only incapacity is his skin. 

The colored suffrage is now a necessity. But beyond 
this, in making it an essential condition of the restoration 



MR. summer's eulogy. 151 

of rebel States to the Union, we follow, first, the law of 
reason and of nature, and secondly the Constitution, not 
only in its text, but as read in the light of the Declaration 
of Independence. By reason and nature there can be 
no denial of rights on account of color ; and we can do 
nothing which is thus irrational and nnnatural. By the 
Constitution it is stipulated that the " United States shall 
guarantee to every State a ropitblkan form of goirrnmciit ; " 
but the meaning of this guaranty must be found in the 
birthday Declaration of the Republic, which is the 
controling preamble of the Constitution. Beyond all 
question the United States, when called to enforce this 
guaranty, must insist on the Equalifj/ of all men hcforc the 
law, and the consent of the (jovniml Such is the true 
idea of a Republican government according to American 
institutions. 

The slave-masters, driven from their first intrcnch- 
ments, already occupy inner defences. Property in man 
is abandoned; but they now insist that colored persons 
shall not enjoy political rights. Liberty has been won. 
The battle for Equality is still pending. And now a new 
compromise is proposed, hy which colored persons are 
to be sacrificed in the name of State Rights. It is sad 
that it should be so. But I do not despair. The cause 
may be delayed ; but it cannot be lost ; and all who 
set themselves against it will be overborne ; for it is the 
cause of Humanity. Not the rich and proud, but the 
poor and lowly, will be the favorites of an enfranchised 
Republic. The words of the prophet will be fulfilled ; 



152 MEMORIAL OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 

•• and I will punish the people for their evil, and the 
wicked for their ini(|uity, and I will cause the arrogance 
of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness 
of the terrible. I WILL MAKE A MAN :\I0IIE 
PRECIOUS THAN FINE GOLD, EVEN A MAN, 
THAN THE GOLDEN WEDGE OF OrillR." I 
catch these sublime promises, and echo them back as the 
assurance of triumiih. Then will the Republic be all that 
heart can desire or imagination can paint — " Siiprcnwh/ 
lovelj/ and sereiwlj/ yreat. Majestic motJier " of a free, happy, 
and united people, with Slavery and all its tyranny 
beaten down under foot, so tliat no man shall call another 
master, and all shall be equal before the law. 

FelloAV-citizens, your task is before you. Mourn not the 
dead, but rejoice in his life and example. Rejoice as you 
point to this child of the people who was lifted so high, that 
Republican Institutions became manifest in him. Rejoice 
that through him Emancipation was proclaimed. Rejoice 
that under him " government of the p(H)ple, by the people 
and for the people," has obtained a final verdict which 
can never be set aside or questioned. Above all, see to it 
that his constant vows are performed, and that the prom- 
ises of the Fathers are maintained, so that no person 
in the upright form of man can be shut out from their 
protection. Do this, and the Unity of the Republic will 
be fixed on a foundation that cannot fail. The corner- 
stone of National Independence is already in its place, 
and on it is inscribed the name of George Washington. 



Mu. summer's kulogv. 153 

There is another stone wliich mnst have its place at 
the corner also. This is the threat Declaration itself, 
once a promise only, at last a reality. On this ada- 
mantine stone we will gratefully inscribe the name of 
AiiUAHAM Lincoln. 



RD°5 






'm-'rm' 









■^^ 



1^* -.^^ "' 



-t 



^•^.-0^ 






c^ 




..-i.^ 



^\ 






rz. 
^"^" 

■'^i 



^^■^■^. .-J.-^^-*- ^^-^^ 



..-5>^ 










.0' 










•>* , -i- 



a^ 



■'!^^v 




^^•n^ 









.A 



<•. 









C /^.fm^; 




.\^^ 









c" y^rjr^- , ^ 



^. ^''/^'- v,./ 



























.Vs ■..--- > 



.V 



'.,..:% '^ 



aO' 



■>vV/>);^ 



^o A^ 







, ■ ^c^'^'^ir^, - - A^'-V --■ s'^V 



^0" 



,0' 






'% '^^m^' /\ 'Wws /'\ ^^y /\ '^^9/ '/% , _..,; 



^* ST. AUGUSTINE *7^^^.* ^^ C^ 



^0■' 



■'^ 



'\^y. 



7^ ':^;-p>:'viri5i'i*;fta^ 




